


Come With Me

by TheWalrusAndTheCarpenter



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Circle of Magi, M/M, Mage Fenris (Dragon Age), and he escaped danarius around the same time anders is in the circle, au where fenris is a mage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-18 06:57:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 36,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7304191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWalrusAndTheCarpenter/pseuds/TheWalrusAndTheCarpenter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fenris didn't hate his magic, but it never seemed to help him in life. When it manifested, he still remained a slave. When Danarius 'gifted' him his lyrium markings, his magic only ever caused him pain. Then when he escaped and ran south, well his magic certainly didn't help him then either, all it did was put him into another cage. But if he can escape once, he can do it again but it may take some time and even some help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Everything looked the same. Looking around his surroundings, Fenris sighed and adjusted the small pack he had acquired a few villages back. The difference between Navarra and Orlais was so obvious, but the border between Fereldan and Orlais was significantly less defined. However when you were trying to avoid large settlements like cities, it did become a lot harder to tell where you were. He had to admit that _everything_ was muddier, so perhaps he had finally reached Fereldan after all.

As he continued walking the midday sun soon began to set, and the lights of a nearby village became much brighter. Maybe if he was lucky there would be a barn or stable he could camp out in for the night. Although there was the risk of being caught by the owner, it would make a nice change to sleeping outside in the cold.

When he reached the outskirts of the village, the settlers had turned out their candles and had presumably gone to bed. Thankfully Fenris’ elven eyes allowed for him to still manoeuvre around the village in the dark with relative ease. Although his eyesight was currently better than a human’s would have been in the situation, it still took a while for him to find that there was in fact a barn.

Fenris kept checking behind him as he tried to pick the lock on the door. He had been quiet and he had nothing on him that produced a light so it was unlikely that a member of the village would have noticed him walking around; however it didn’t hurt to be careful.

The thin pin he was using as a lock pick snapped as he twisted it the wrong way in the lock.

“Fasta vass,” he growled under his breath.

He had nothing else on him he could use as a lock pick and so without any other way to open the door he would have to use what he kept as a last resort, his magic.

Bracing himself, Fenris urged a large chuck of ice to form around the lock. The more mana he used, the brighter his markings glowed and the more they _burned._ With one hand focussing his magic towards the door, he used his free hand to pull his cloak closer around his body in a meagre attempt at hiding the light his markings were producing.

Curse Danarius for putting this lyrium in his skin, now even the simplest of spells caused him excruciating pain as his body tried to use it up. Well, it wasn’t as though Danarius was thinking about the wellbeing of his slave while he was doing the ritual. All Danarius wanted was a walking, obedient mana battery.

There was a dull thud as the mechanisms in the lock broke and it fell off of the door and into the dirt below.

The inside of the barn was nothing extravagant; it was just a barn after all. Dirty hay was scattered across the floor, with two sleeping cows in the furthest corner. Feeling his eyelids become heavy with the thought of rest so close, Fenris went over to a relatively clean pile of hay. He discarded his pack beside him and laid down, the hay poked uncomfortably into his skin no matter how he positioned himself.

His stomach faintly growled as he lay there. He wrapped an arm around his stomach and pulled himself into a tight ball to protect himself against the cold Ferelden wind that was coming in underneath the door and through the cracks in the walls. As he began to drift off he made a mental note to find something to eat tomorrow, he couldn’t remember the last time he had any food.

-

“He’s in ‘ere ser,” A shaking female voice woke Fenris from his sleep, after so many years as a slave you learn to sleep lightly. “I-I saw ‘im using his magic on the lock!”

“Thank you for alerting us,” Another voice, male this time, said. “Apostates can be dangerous and unpredictable and the quicker we can remove him from your village, the safer you all shall be. I suggest that you head back inside.”

Instantly, Fenris was on his feet.

He knew that he shouldn’t have been so reckless as to have thought he would have been safe. From where he was he couldn’t see any other exits apart from the one he came through, the one that currently had slavers standing outside of it. That meant only one thing, he would have to try and defend himself.

“We know you’re in there apostate!” A different female voice yelled out, banging on the door with something metal. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be!”

Staying silent, Fenris flared his brands. Since none of his lyrium was used up to just activate his markings, he could easily maintain the intimidating glow. Many a time has just showing his brands lit up caused enemies to run in fear, he just hoped that that would be enough this time too.

The door burst open shortly after to reveal two heavily armoured humans, their stature was too large and muscular for them to have been elven or dwarven. They didn’t look much like the other slavers that Danarius had sent after him in the past. Regardless, Fenris wasn’t going to allow himself to be taken easily.

“By the Maker, he’s glowing!” The shorter of the two, the male, exclaimed as he reached for his sword.

Behind her helmet, the woman’s eyes widened and she went into a similar stance as the man.

“Is he _possessed_?” Fenris could hear the woman hiss to her companion.

With a loud snarl, Fenris summoned his magic once again. Fire gathered at his hands and licked its way up his arms. He could feel a burn akin to the fire at his fingertips across his entire body. As he lunged forward, the humans raised their shields.

The flaming sword engraved onto their armour caught Fenris’ attention. He recognised the symbol from when he accompanies Danarius to the south once before. These definitely weren’t slavers, these were _templars_.

Releasing the fire at the templars, Fenris yelled.

“You will not take m-“

His words died on his tongue as his breath was knocked out of him by what felt like an invisible wall. The templars had barely moved! Fenris didn’t understand what had just happened. Northern templars didn’t have this much power.

Panicked, he tried to summon his magic once again but his connection to the fade was… blocked? It was as though someone had snapped a suppression collar around his neck. Although he was still trying to catch his breath, Fenris still wasn’t going to give up. As the two templars walked closer, the woman grasped tightly onto one of Fenris’ wrists.

“You’re not going anywhere, Apostate.” The man said smugly and he clapped a hand down onto Fenris’ shoulder.

Using the arm that wasn’t being held by the female templar, Fenris shifted and swiftly elbowed the other templar in the neck. He would have gone for the nose but his helmet covered most of his face. Either way, it created a similar effect.

The templar took a staggered step back, letting go of Fenris as he did. The elf moved to face the templar that was still holding his wrist but before he could, he felt a blunt object hit him heavily on the head and all went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fenris finds out where he is and Anders reads smutty Orlesian literature.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case it wasn't too clear I'm trying to base Anders more off of what he was like in Awakening than in Dragon Age II because of the fact that I think Justice did have a huge effect on his personality and also he wouldn't have been joined with the spirit when he was in the Circle.

When Fenris awoke, he was alone. He was no longer in the barn; instead he was in what seemed like a cell. It was nothing more than a tiny brick room with a wooden stool, a metal bucket, and a thick wooden door that Fenris automatically knew was locked. He didn’t know where he was but he knew that he didn’t like it.

“Where…” Fenris trailed off as he spotted that the room had a window. It was small, high-up, barred window but it was a window none the less.

Fenris stood up quickly from where he had been lying on the floor. His head throbbed and his vision momentarily blurred from the sudden movement.

A thick, heavy, nauseating feeling in his stomach made him gag before he had to rush over towards the metal bucket. Having not eaten anything, all he retched up was bile and remnants of a thick purple-pink liquid. After wiping his mouth drowsily with his arm, Fenris tried to reach his magic. When he found nothing, his suspicions were confirmed. After the templar had knocked him unconscious, they must have forced magebane down his throat. However, it did appear to on its way out of his system which Fenris  supposed was some kind of good fortune on his behalf.

As he rose from where he had collapsed next to the bucket, he had to steady himself against the cold brick wall. The churning in his stomach continued as he moved across the cell to the wooden stool. He cursed whoever created magebane under his breath while pushing the stool underneath the window.

Stepping up onto it, he looked out. The thick iron bars partially obscured his view but he could still see enough to tell that he was still in Ferelden. However instead of seeing endless fields of mud and farms, there was just water. Wherever he was, it appeared to be in the middle of a giant lake.

Fenris let out a loud yell, and slammed his hands against the bars. He was so close to being free and now he was right back into another cage, and this one was surrounded by freezing water. It would require more effort and planning to escape this time around.

“Get down from there mage.” A harsh voice snapped from behind him.

Fenris turned to find that the large wooden door had been opened and standing in the hallway were two templars and an older man in a robe.

In response to the strangers, Fenris flared his markings. However due to his exhaustion and the fact that his body was still fighting the magebane, they only flickered before dulling down. Even if they didn’t work fully, the others still took a step back in surprise.

“You may leave Marin,” The older templar said to his companion. With a nod, she left without a word.

The two men then entered the cell and the templar focuses his stern gaze on Fenris.

“What is your name elf?”

Still standing on the wooden stool, Fenris remained silent. He substituted replying in order to take in more of the men in front of him.

The templar wasn’t young; he was probably a similar age to Danarius. They both shared the same, cold calculating eyes that made Fenris automatically suspicious of the man. He stood tall, however Fenris could tell that the templar was unsure of how he should react should Fenris activate his brands again. The templar was clearly out of his depth but he tried hard to hide that fact.

His companion looked roughly the same age as the templar, however that was where the similarities ended. The mage, as was easily discovered when Fenris noticed the staff attached to his back, seemed sad. However Fenris was uncertain as to why this was.

“What is your name?” The templar demanded with growing frustration. When Fenris still didn’t reply, he huffed. “You deal with him Irving; my patience is thin enough as it is today.”

The sounds of his metal armour clanging rang throughout the room as he left.

The mage – Irving – took a step forward and put his hand up as a sign of peace when Fenris tried to back further into the wall.

“I mean you no harm young one,” The man spoke softly and calmly as though this was a situation he had to deal with frequently. “Please, what is your name?”

Fenris was quiet for a moment before he stepped down from the stool. Should anything happen he would rather not be atop of something so unstable when it did.

“My name is Fenris.”

A soft smile appeared on the man’s face.

“That is a Tevinter accent, is it not?” He asked, although quieter this time.

For that, Fenris was grateful. He knew the reputation Tevinter mages had down south and he would rather not have the templar that was waiting outside charge in and begin accusing him of being a maleficar.

“Yes,” Fenris stated in a tone that he hoped would make Irving drop the subject.

Apparently Irving understood and switched topics. Despite the situation, Fenris decided that Irving was okay.

“Now,” Irving started. “Can you please try and summon a fireball for me?”

Raising an eyebrow at the randomness of the request, Fenris looked down as his hand. Although it was clear that the magebane’s effect had lessened, his connection to the fade was still barely there.

With a deep breath, Fenris focused very hard. If he could just reach a little further, he may be able to draw something from the fade. With his mana so depleted, when he eventually managed to create a small flame, his body began to use his lyrium. Irving watched with curiosity and some concern as Fenris’ face contorted into an expression of pure pain. When it all became too much to bear, his small red flame dissipated.

“Your tattoos, they aren’t tattoos are they?” Irving asked softly, almost cautiously.

It took quite a bit of self-control for the elf to snap at Irving about how it was none of his business. But with the amount of templars he assumed were in the building, he didn’t think that lashing out would be a good idea. Besides, Irving had been more pleasant to him than anyone else he had met in a long time; it was only fair that Fenris treated him with equal respect.

“They are… not ink, no.” Fenris replied vaguely. “They were forced on me against my will.”

Irving pressed his lips into a line and nodded slowly. The mage could tell that the white lines were lyrium. He couldn’t help but pity the youth in front of him, the young elf had obviously escaped bad conditions and now to be caught by templars, it didn’t seem particularly fair. Perhaps the Circle would be better for him, whatever had caused him to run down south would not be able to get to him in here.

The way the markings reacted with his magic was fascinating. However, Irving doubted that that would be something that Fenris would want to hear. The way Walt and Tyra had talked about how they had found him, Irving was expecting some kind of possessed blood mage; instead all he could see was a scared boy.

“That should be enough, thank you.” Irving said before calling out into the hall for Greagoir.

The older templar from earlier came back into the room. He cast his eyes between Fenris and Irving before keeping a critical watch on Fenris.

“Shall I escort him to his new quarters?” Greagoir asked Irving, who nodded in response.

Greagoir gestured towards the door, leaving no choice but for the elf to follow. Once Fenris had left the room, Irving followed and closed the door behind him.

As they walked through the winding halls all Fenris could see were mages and templars. That confirmed it, he was in a Circle. From what Danarius has explained prior to his escape, the southern Circles were prisons for mages. A few months ago Fenris had just assumed that Danarius had exaggerated to deter him from thinking of running to Ferelden. Perhaps his master had been telling the truth for once.

Some of the mages, and even some of the templars, turned to watch Fenris as he passed. It was unnerving to say the least.

The Circle wasn’t like the Circles back in Tevinter that much was obvious. Where in Tevinter they were places of learning – although only for the highest of classes obviously – here they seemed to be somewhere where mages were contained. Not only that, but there were many more templars here than you would ever see in a Tevinter Circle. The differences between the two Chantries were astounding.

Eventually Greagoir came to a stop outside of a room. It was small but it was still at least double the size of the cell Fenris had just been in.

“This is where you will be staying from this moment onwards,” Greagoir explained. His tone was a lot harsher and matter-of-fact than Irving’s. “You will also have to share this space with another apprentice, who you will most likely meet soon enough.”

The templar then mumbled something under his breath that sounded a lot like, “that skinny blonde headache.”

Having heard Greagoir’s comment, Irving chuckled before collecting himself and attempting to disguise his laugh as a cough.

“Anyway,” Greagoir said after clearing his throat. “You will find a set of robes on your bed that you will be required to change into. Dinner will be signalled by a bell, it’s mandatory that you attend. Should you fail to turn up a templar will come and find you. Your roommate can fill you in on how things work around here later.”

Irving waited for a moment before turning to Fenris.

“Should you have any queries, you can find me on the second floor in my office.”

The room fell into silence and Fenris was unsure whether or not they were waiting for a response from him. He gave a small nod which seemed to satisfy them both; however Greagoir still seemed to be looking at him suspiciously.

Irving was the first to leave. After Irving had left the room, Greagoir lingered as though he wanted to say something. Fenris stayed where he was and waited for Greagoir to speak. Instead, Greagoir just shook his head, having obviously changed his mind. Turning on his heel, the templar then left and was hot on Irving’s heels. Once again Fenris was left alone and slightly confused in an unfamiliar room.

With a small groan, Fenris looked around. There wasn’t much in terms of possessions in the room and if he wasn’t already told he had a roommate, he would have assumed that no one lived here. There was a bunk bed on one side of the room, and a large trunk with a few books piled on top of it on the other side but that was all.

Luckily, there was a window just opposite the door and although it was still barred, the window was lower and larger. Fenris couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the cruel joke, they would show you the sights of the outside world but the bars would always remind you that it was something you were being denied.

With no immediate interest in leaving the room or changing into the ugly Circle robes he had been provided, Fenris grabbed one of the books from the chest and began to idly flick through it. Unable to read the words, instead he looked at the diagrams that seemed to depict various herbs. At least it made a change from counting tiles, which is what he usually did in Tevinter when he wasn’t trailing Danarius around like a pet dog.

\--

Irving parted ways with Greagoir just outside of the library. He wished that he could meet the new mages by himself but it just wasn’t allowed. As much as Irving knew that Fenris didn’t want to be part of the Circle, at least it meant that Irving could move onto part of a plan that he had wanted to put together for a while. Now, if he was right Anders should be right over – ah there he was.

The lanky apprentice was sitting in the middle of the library with a large pile of books surrounding him. Ever since Karl was transferred to Kirkwall, all Anders seemed to do was study. He was rarely seen now without his nose in a book.

Irving, along with some of the senior templars, was afraid that he would try and escape again. As much as Irving wanted to see the boy safe, there are only so many times that Irving could protect him before Greagoir pushes for the rite of tranquillity.

“Anders.”

The blond didn’t respond and it took a nudge to the shoulder for Irving to gain his full attention.

“Ah Irving,” Anders said with a smirk. “Have you come to tell me how you’ve sent away another one of my friends, hm?”

It wasn’t as though Irving had much of a say in the matter, Karl was transferred simply because Kirkwall required more senior mages. And it just made more sense to send him immediately after his Harrowing rather than after he had just gotten settled in the mages quarters.

Irving brushed off the comment and continued unfazed.

“We’ve recently gained a new addition to the Circle and I think that it would be best to pair him with you.”

Raising an eyebrow, Anders slowly closed his book. All he wanted to do was read smutty Orlesian literature in peace. He had even gone through the effort of hiding it the cover of a textbook so that people would think he was trying to be productive and then leave him alone.

“Why’s that?” Anders questioned, it wasn’t as though he was a shining example of a Circle mage. “He’s not some undercover templar you’ve chosen to keep an eye on me, is he?”

Irving had to resist the urge to sigh. Yes, he did like the boy; he truly was a bright lad. However he also tended to try Irving’s patience at times.

“No, Anders. He’s perfectly normal.”

Squinting his eyes, Anders’ searched Irving’s face for any indication that he was lying. Then a thought popped into his head.

“Wait; is it that elf I saw being taken to solitary a few days ago?”

The elf had been unconscious, carried like a sack of potatoes over Walt’s shoulder. There wasn’t much that Anders could remember about the elf from his short sighting other than the strange tattoos he had. Perhaps he was Dalish?

“Why did they drag him to solitary? Oh Maker, he isn’t some wanna-be blood mage is he?” Anders went on to ask when Irving failed to answer.

Irving sighed and rubbed his brow. Really it was none of Anders’ business but he could see that he wasn’t going to drop the subject.

“We…” Irving sighed again to try and collect his thoughts. “We originally believed him to be more dangerous than he actually is.”

In all fairness that wasn’t very far off of the truth. After the reports of Fenris’ glowing, Irving feared that he may have been possessed and so until it could be confirmed he had to be kept in solitary for everyone’s safety. However after seeing how Fenris’ attempt to conjure something as simple as a fireball, he realised quite how wrong he was. Part of Irving hopped that the pain he showed was due to the remaining magebane in his system or the after effects of the Smite because otherwise his eventual Harrowing may prove to be difficult.

Letting out a scoff, Anders rolled his eyes.

“Yes that’s _very_ reassuring,” he said sarcastically. “Can I just pass on the mysterious roommate and just go straight to where you order Cullen to watch me like a hawk for the next few months?”

Of course Anders figured out the real reason behind Irving pairing him up with the new apprentice. Greagoir and Irving both came to the conclusion that if Anders had a friend then maybe he would be less likely to escape. It was either that or get more templars to keep a constant watch on Anders which never seemed to end well for anyone.

“Despite what you think Anders, I do believe that this will be good for you.”

Anders let out a laugh and Irving couldn’t help but smile.

“I’ll let you get back to your studies.”

As Irving walked away, Anders tried to get back into his book but he couldn’t focus now, his attention was more interested in his new roommate. He knew that this was part of some weird plan of Irving’s but despite his better judgement he was still intrigued.

Closing the book once again, he tucked in under his arm and headed off towards his room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh gosh i've never written Greagoir or Irving before so please take their personalities with a pinch of salt okay? Also I had to change around the layout of the Circle a bit so it fitted better with the fic (only really the bedroom arrangements really, I didn't like the idea of having many apprentices in a room together since it didn't fit this)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's impressive that Anders can still talk when he's constantly putting his foot in his mouth.

It didn’t take long for Anders to get to his room. Then again, the tower was so small that it never really took you very long to get anywhere. It probably only took you a few minutes to do a lap around one floor.

He walked passed the other apprentices’ rooms until he came to a stop outside of his.

Silently, Anders watched the strange elf that was sitting on his bed from the doorframe. His stark white hair was like nothing Anders had ever seen before, it just looked so soft. Surely it wasn’t his natural hair colour; the elf looked too young to be going grey. Maybe it was some obscure physical alteration spell? Then Anders noticed the tattoos, thin white lines that covered his arms, neck, and face. They even reached his toes and Anders winced at how much that would have hurt. When he saw that the tattoos dipped underneath the clothes he was wearing, Anders couldn’t help but wonder just how far the lines went.

“Reading anything interesting?” Anders asked with a smirk when he saw the book that the elf was looking at.

The elf’s eyes snapped up and he quickly shut the book. The loud slamming sound echoed around the room. Anders tried his best not to wince.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Anders said in an attempt at an apology.

When the elf looked up at Anders, Anders froze. He had the most beautiful eyes. He knew that elven eyes were usually really nice but… Maker. For a moment Anders was lost in the vibrant greens, unable to tear himself away.

Fenris shifted under such an intense gaze. The way that the mage was staring at him was making him nervous. He had been under a similar leer many times back in Tevinter, and it never resulted in anything good.

When it became obvious to Anders that he had been staring, he gave a small smile that he hoped was an apologetic one.

“Well, I’m Anders,” he introduced cheerily, holding his hand out for the elf to shake. “Irving tells me that you’re my new roommate.”

Fenris looked curiously at Ander’s outstretched bony hand and made no real attempt to move. The smile on Anders’ face faltered and he slowly retracted his hand. He made a mental note that the pretty elf either didn’t like being touched or was just rude.

“Fenris,” the elf replied bluntly.

Apparently it was the latter. Nevertheless, Anders would just have to keep trying. Nobody could resist his charms forever. He was annoying like that.

Anders went over to the trunk and placed his book inside it. There was a new set of robes in the trunk that hadn’t been there earlier, they were folded neatly on top of the old clothes that Anders had been wearing when he came to the Circle when he was twelve. As much as everyone might have enjoyed seeing Anders walk around in a too-short robe, it just made more sense that the robes were intended for Fenris.

“Ah, I remember when I first got my robes, there’s nothing quite like cheap itchy purple fabric,” Anders explained with faux nostalgia.

Picking up the robes, Anders turned dramatically on his heel and handed them out to Fenris. For a moment Anders was afraid that Fenris wasn't going to take them, but luckily he did. The elf accepted the robes and placed them beside him on the bed.

“As much as I’m sure you like your own clothes,” Anders began as he glanced over what Fenris was wearing. To be honest, he wasn’t quite sure what he was wearing but it was very spikey, black, and _tight_. “You may want to change into the robes.”

Fenris still didn’t seem convinced.

“They’re mandatory, aren’t they?” Fenris asked, glancing at the robes.

It was the most that Anders had heard him say since he had entered the room. The elf had an accent that Anders just couldn’t put his finger on. It definitely wasn’t Orlesian, and from what he could remember of his father it wasn’t an Ander accent either. Nevarran perhaps?

“Unfortunately so.” Anders chuckled at the annoyed face Fenris pulled, nobody liked the robes. “But they are good for some things. There’s no buttons which means you’re less likely to be caught by templars during quick trysts.”

Anders finished with a flirty wink and he was somewhat taken aback when Fenris seemed to recoil at it. Well, that had never happened before.

After awkwardly clearing his throat, Anders decided to try a softer approach.

“It’ll stop the templars from nagging you,” he said truthfully.

Fenris ducked his eyes and nodded. Without even another word he stood up from the bed and began to remove the top part of his clothing. Anders caught a flash of his tanned, smooth stomach before turning his back to Fenris. If Fenris hadn’t accepted a simple wink, he doubted that the elf would appreciate Anders watching him undress.

“So,” Anders began to fill the silence. “Where are you from? I can’t place your accent.”

It didn’t take long for Fenris to change into his robes. When the sound of rustling clothes stopped, Anders turned around. The robes hung off of Fenris’ slender elven frame, almost drowning him in fabric. Maybe they would be able to convince Penny to take it in for him, besides Penny owed him a favour.

“I…I am from Tevinter,” Fenris admitted.

That piqued Anders’ interest. He had heard about Tevinter from some of the other apprentices, it was a land where mages ruled and you could live without fear of persecution from templars. Anders would be lying if he said that he hadn’t daydreamt of running off to Tevinter in the past. There probably wasn’t a single mage in a Circle that hadn’t imagined a life of freedom in Tevinter at least once.

“Is it truly as they say it is?” Anders asked eagerly, not noticing how Fenris’ face had begun to pull into a scowl. “I’ve always through about how wonderful it would be to not have to hide my magic and to just be free. It must have been nice I- What? Did I say something wrong?

Anders instinctively took a step back from the obviously angered elf. Even with his ill-fitting robes, Fenris was incredibly intimidating when he bared his teeth.

“The South has such deluded ideas of Tevinter,” Fenris spat. “It is _nothing_ like you think. It is not some magical paradise. Yes mages rule but if you’re not born as the right race or in the right family, you’re just as common as everyone else. You only learn of the basics of Tevinter, people rarely acknowledge the slavery, blood magic, or corruption that runs through the entire country.”

Fenris took a step forward causing Anders to once again backpedal.

“When my magic manifested, did anything change? Did I become an apprentice to a wise magister? Did I get moved to an expensive estate? No, I was still just a slave. True freedom is just as hard to come by in Tevinter as it is anywhere else.”

Anders’ eyes were wide and he was frozen to the spot. He didn’t realise that he would get such an explosive response. Yes the templars often talked about blood magic and Tevinter within the same breath but Anders often blocked it out when he heard about the supposed freedom that mages had there.

Fenris stood in front of Anders, attempting to calm himself. With a quiet cough, Fenris quickly left the room.

“I-I don’t wish to talk about this anymore,” he muttered as he ran out.

Standing alone in the room, Anders was unsure what to think. It hurt that Tevinter wasn’t the paradise that he once thought it was, but he supposed that he should have known that it wasn’t perfect. But at the same time, part of him was happy that he managed to get more than one sentence out of the elf.

Anders had no clue where Fenris had run off to but he must have found a good hiding place since Anders didn’t see him for the remainder of the afternoon. It wasn’t as though Anders had been purposely looking for the elf though.

When the bell rang to signal dinner, Anders filed into the hall with the rest of the apprentices and mages. He grabbed his usual plate of unidentifiable sludge, which smelt oddly fishy today, and he slid into his seat beside Penny.

Penelope Amell was a petite pretty thing. The tiny human usually passed under the radar but she was still known throughout the Circle as ‘that mage that Cullen fawns over’. She mainly kept to the few close friends she had and as a result she rarely came into confrontation with the templars. It was thanks to having Karl as a mutual friend that she and Anders met.  Penny was there for him when Karl was transferred and ever since then Anders considered her as something akin to a sister.

“Anders!” She said with a huge grin as he sat down. “There’s a rumour going around that you’ve got a new Dalish roommate. It must be strange having to share a room again.”

Previously Anders shared his room with a guy named Logan. It wasn’t as though he and Logan were best friends but they had a sort of relationship a few years back. Neither of them saw it as anything serious just the occasional hook up or make-out session. They stopped when Anders met Karl.

After Logan went for his Harrowing, nobody saw him again. None of the templars or even Irving gave any information as to what happened to him, but everyone had their suspicions.

Anders swallowed down a mouthful of his meal before replying.

“He’s not Dalish,” Anders explained. “At least I don’t think so.”

Anders didn’t feel as though it was his place to say that Fenris was an ex-slave. Besides, maybe Fenris had been part of a Dalish clan originally; those tattoos certainly seemed similar to some of the Dalish tattoos he’d seen.

Penny just nodded her head, her spoon still in her mouth. She didn’t really know anything about Anders’ new roommate other than what information had been spread through the rumour mill.

Out of the corner of his eye, Anders spotted the white haired elf entering the room. The fact that Cullen was one step behind him meant that Greagoir had had to send someone to retrieve him for dinner.

“Actually, that’s him over there,” Anders said, pointing his fork in Fenris’ direction.

“Huh, I can’t believe that I didn’t notice him until now. Do you think that hair is natural?”

The pair watched as Fenris got his plate and sat down at an empty end of one of the long tables. It made Anders feel slightly bad for him. He would have invited Fenris to join them but after his exit earlier he doubted that he would want to.

Penny took a swig of her drink, keeping an eye on Anders.

“You said something stupid to him didn’t you?” She asked.

With a sign Anders turned his attention back to his food. Penny didn’t need Anders to reply for her to know the answer. Anders did have a habit of putting his foot in his mouth when he talked to people sometimes.

“Whatever you said, just apologise. It isn’t often that you get a new roommate and it’ll be nicer for both of you if you got on,” Penny told him.

Anders nodded. It wasn’t as though he and Fenris didn’t get on though; they had only just met after all. But Penny still had a point, he needed to apologise.

“So, did you hear about Nadia?” Penny said, changing the topic. “She got half of her hair burnt off by one of the kids who was practicing with flames!”

The conversation then eased into gossiping, which tended to be the main topic of conversation in the circle. One of the good things about being friends with Penny was that you always got the best gossip. Penelope Amell was basically the eyes and ears of the Circle, there was very little that went on that she didn’t know about.

-

By the time Anders actually spoke to Fenris again, it was when they were both in their respective bunks after lights out. Before that Fenris had been Maker knows where. The elf had practically vanished immediately after he had finished his meal.

Fenris had claimed the bottom bunk as his own and although Anders had carved his name into the headboard a few years back, he decided to just take the upper bunk rather than make a big deal about it.

Leaning over the edge of the bedframe, Anders peered into Fenris’ bunk. He was staring off into space, appearing to be deep in thought.

“You know that there’s more to do here than stare at things don’t you?”

Fenris just shrugged. All he saw in the Circle were people and books, and when you can’t read and you’re not exactly sociable then it doesn’t leave much for you to do.

“Like what?” Fenris prompted hoping for some kind of enlightenment.

“Well, you could read, wind up the templars, make friends, gossip, or practice spells.”

Anders purposely missed out the fact that sexual relations were how many apprentices passed the time, because he gathered that Fenris didn’t appreciate that kind of talk.

Giving a slow nod, Fenris returned back to studying the wood grains on the underside of Anders’ bunk. Fenris decided that he shall have to find some way to stay occupied. Today he had spent his time exploring his unfamiliar surroundings but he could only do that so many times before they became familiar and the activity became dull.

“About earlier,” Anders started awkwardly.

Fenris turned his head and watched Anders with on brow arched as the blond floundered over his words.

“I wanted to apologise for earlier I suppose, we never really get taught about places outside of the Circle so I really shouldn’t have believed everything as fact. I just wanted to believe that there was a chance that I could be free and in the process I ignored what was really going on so… I’m sorry.”

Anders waited for a response from Fenris but all he got was a simple nod. He couldn’t tell whether it meant that Fenris accepted his apology or if that just meant that the elf was done with the conversation. Giving Fenris a small, sad smile Anders pulled himself back into his bunk.

Pulling the bed covers up to his nose, Anders turned onto his side and closed his eyes. He hoped that eventually Fenris would open up and the two would be able to talk more freely. At the moment talking to Fenris was like trying to talk to a brick wall.

 _Having a roommate is so much fun_ , Anders though sarcastically, as he began to drift off.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhhhhhhh I'm still getting the hang of writing Fenris and Anders so I hope this was okay!! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and any kudos/comments are really appreciated. I've tried to check through this but if there are any mistakes, I'm sorry. If you spot any glaring errors please tell me so that I can try and fix them :)
> 
> Also, this is currently the last chapter that I have to hand and I would have uploaded it yesterday but I was too tired to check through it. I'm thinking of trying to have a set day that I release chapters because whenever I write fics I want to get chapters out as quickly as possible and that usually leads to me rushing them which isn't something you guys would want to read tbh. So the next chapter will probably be up this Saturday! <3


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reading and rumours.

Over the following weeks not much changed between the pair. Anders continued to try and make conversation with the elf, but he never really gave a proper response. He eventually came to the conclusion that Fenris was just depressed about being taken to the Circle; it was a common reaction with older apprentices after all.

Anders’ had been in the Circle for long enough to notice that ages definitely made a difference in how people adjusted to the Circle. The younger a child is when they’re taken to the tower, the less they remember about the outside world and the quicker they seem to adjust to Circle life. But those who were older when they were caught either become resigned or act out.

Anders was the former surprisingly; his first few weeks were spent in total silence. He had refused to so much as speak his name. Because of this one of the templars who bought him in referred to him as ‘the Ander’ since it was his father that had called the templars in the first place. When he had accidentally burnt down his family barn his father has been furious and immediately went to get the templars. His Fereldan mother had just stood crying the whole time, too in shock to move. Over time ‘the Ander’ changed into ‘Anders’. After being called Anders for so much of his life, he could only just remember his birth name, although he saw no point in sharing it with anyone.

However Fenris wasn’t completely silent, the two would have the odd short conversation. They never talked about anything too deep or important, usually it was just Anders talking about his day or asking about Fenris’.

From what Anders’ had observed, Fenris seemed to spend his time either walking back and forth around the tower, or staring at the underside of Anders’ bunk. Anders was starting to wonder whether there was something naughty carved there with the amount of time that Fenris spent blankly staring at it.

One morning while in the library, Anders had been finishing the final chapter of that trashy Orlesian romance novel he had started a few weeks back when he spotted Fenris enter the room. Keeping his face down, Anders followed the elf with his eyes. It was strange to see him here considering that aside from the book Fenris had been flicking through when they first met, Fenris hadn’t shown any interest in reading.

Anders watched as Fenris moved over to one of the tall bookcases on the furthest side of the room. Fenris looked up at the rows upon rows of books before taking a step back. It didn’t appear as though Fenris was searching for a particular book, he seemed to just be looking. Maybe that section just seemed to interest him, from memory Anders couldn’t recall what kinds of books were there though.

Giving a quick glace around the room, Anders noticed that he wasn’t the only one who was watching Fenris. Ever since Fenris had arrived everyone’s eyes seemed to be glued to him. It was more likely due to his striking appearance rather than the fact that he was new. Perhaps that was why Fenris suck to their room.

One of the younger apprentices walked up to Fenris and began to talk. As they spoke, the elf became visibly tense. From this distance Anders couldn’t tell what they were speaking to Fenris about but Fenris only replied with a shake of his head. The apprentice gave him an awkward, nervous smile and walked back to their table.

Fenris furrowed his brow and looked down at the floor.  After casting another quick look at the bookcases, he left just as silently as he had arrived.

“He’s an odd one,” Someone murmured nearby.

Anders raised his head, looking for the source of the whispers.

“Yeah, I mean just _look_ at those tattoos! He’s certainly not like any Dalish I’ve ever seen before.”

Off to his left, there was a group of apprentices, huddled around a large book. However they all appeared to be more interested in talking about Fenris than reading.

“He doesn’t even wear shoes,” One of the apprentices said with a harsh, judgmental laugh. “All of the other Dalish we’ve had wear the Circle shoes!”

“I don’t think he has any friends either,” Another one whispered. “I’ve only ever seen him by himself, poor thing.”

“Poor thing?” The first one scoffed. “I heard from Brooks that he was an apprentice to a blood mage! A _blood mage_! He’s probably plotting something horrible!”

As the group descended into shocked gasps and more outrageous theories about the white haired elf, Anders shook his head. The constantly running rumour mill of the Ferelden Circle was one of the few forms of entertainment they had. It could often provide useful bits of information and funny stories, but most of the time all it produced was horrid lies.

From what Fenris had implied of his time in Tevinter, Anders felt sick that the apprentices would accuse Fenris of something like that. However, he couldn’t say anything without revealing something about Fenris that Anders wasn’t sure that he would want told to the entire Circle.

With an audible huff, Anders picked up his book. As he went to leave a new plan formed in his mind and he stopped by the bookcase that Fenris had been looking at. The section seemed to be focussing on Ferelden. Anders wouldn’t have guessed that Fenris was so interested in the country that he’d want to read a book on it but Anders wasn’t going to judge. He picked out a few books from the section such as _Ferelden: Folklore and History_ and even _The History of Grey Wardens in Ferelden_. Once happy with his selection, Anders headed back towards his and Fenris’ room.

Just like when Anders left for the library that morning, Fenris was lying on his bunk. But when Anders entered, Fenris sat up. He looked over at the blond and raised a dark eyebrow at the books he was carrying.

“I wasn’t aware that you were planning to turn our room into a library,” He said with what appeared to be a hint of a smirk.

Fenris had been doing that more and more frequently. Smirking that is. The elf rarely smiled and Anders was starting to think that maybe Fenris’ smirks were just how he smiled.

Anders rolled his eyes and moved to put the books beside Fenris with a _thud._

“Haha. The elf has a sense of humour, that’s good to know.”

 Anders ran his fingers nervously through his hair. He would have to get a hair tie at some point as it kept falling into his face when he read.

“Jokes aside, I thought you might enjoy these rather than doing nothing all day,” Anders explained. “I saw you looking at them earlier.”

Silently, Fenris turned to look at the books beside him.

“Oh,” was all he said.

The smile that had previously been on the blond’s face, vanished. There he was trying to do something nice, but all Anders got in return was an ‘oh’. Not even a thank you.

Fenris could tell that Anders was annoyed. The gift – if that’s what this was – was appreciated but Fenris had no use for books. The somewhat hurt expression on Anders’ face made him Fenris feel as though something thick was caught in his throat.  Anders was the only one in the Circle who actively tried to talk to Fenris and although he found Anders’ lack of a verbal filter at times annoying, he was actually beginning to like the blond.

“I-I apologise,” Fenris said, hunching his shoulders. “I am not used to people doing things like this for me…”

A small smile began to work its way onto Anders’ face again, and the feeling in Fenris’ throat started to ease.

“I never would have thought that you were so interested in Ferelden history,” Anders said, obviously switching the topic.

“Is that what these books are about?” asked Fenris.

Anders paused for a moment. The way that Fenris genuinely seemed as though he didn’t know caught him off guard. How could Fenris not know what the books were about? He was the one that had been looking at them in the library earlier. Then it dawned on him.

“You can’t read can you?” Anders asked softly.

The way that Fenris ducked his head was answer enough. Now it was Anders’ turn to feel guilty, he should have known that being an ex-slave Fenris never had a proper education.

Anders, who was still standing in front of Fenris, shuffled his feet awkwardly.

“I’m sorry. I guess they don’t really teach slaves things like that do they?”

Fenris shook his head, “No, they don’t.”

Some slaves were given a basic education, such as some maths so that when they went out to buy food for their master’s household, they didn’t go over their budget. He had heard of one Magister who had taught a few of his slaves how to read so that they could read out news and letters while he bathed, although that was the only time he’d heard of something like that happening as many slaves were required to be neither seen nor heard. If Fenris was ever given any kind of education, he didn’t remember any of it. He couldn’t remember anything before he received his markings.

“I could teach you...”

Fenris blinked. He wasn’t sure whether he had heard that correctly. With large eyes, he stared up at Anders in disbelief.

“I-If you wanted that is,” Anders added lamely.

There had been a few occasions where, as punishment, Anders had to help out with some of the younger apprentices. Since some of the really young ones had yet to learn to read, Anders was given the task of teaching them. He wasn’t a perfect teacher but if Fenris was willing to learn he was willing to try and teach. Anders assumed that Fenris would prefer someone he knew rather than a stranger.

“Thank you, Anders,” Fenris said earnestly.

A soft smile was pulling at the elf’s lips. Secretly he had always wanted to read but he never dwelled on it much back in Tevinter since he knew he shouldn’t waste his time with dreams that would never happen. But he wasn’t in Tevinter anymore.

“Let me just get some ink and some paper and we can start!” Anders told Fenris with a large grin.

The blond then began to quickly rummage through the trunk. He was sure that he had some writing supplies somewhere in here.

Soon enough Anders was sitting beside Fenris with the entire common tongue alphabet written out on a sheet of paper. Anders had tried his hardest to make it as neat and easy to read as possibly which took a lot of effort since his usual handwriting was rather messy.

At first it was hard but after a while Fenris began to get the hang of it. He managed to recall most of the alphabet and their sounds quickly enough. They even managed to fit in beginning to look at some basic words like ‘cat’, ‘dog’, ‘yes’, and ‘no’ before the meal bell rang. Writing and spelling would be another task entirely and it would probably be a while before they began to tackle that. However, it couldn’t hurt to try and help Fenris write out the alphabet a few times.

“You should come and sit with us,” Anders said as the pair walked into the hall with the rest of the mages and apprentices.

“Us?” Fenris asked. He knew that Anders must have other friends but he had never really heard the blond speak of them, which was surprising considering how much Anders liked to talk.

 “Me and Penny.” Anders clarified.

Fenris pursed his lips and nodded, although he had no idea who this Penny was. Part of him wanted to decline the offer but in reality he was rather tired of sitting by himself.

The pair collected their plates of food and Fenris followed Anders to a table where a small, blonde, human was sitting. When she looked up and saw Fenris, her eyes widened slightly and she gave a warm smile.

“You must be Fenris,” She said as Anders and Fenris sat down opposite her.

Fenris gave a short nod in greeting.

“You must be Penny.”

Penny mirrored Fenris’ nod, causing Anders to snort and nearly cough up the mouthful of food he’d been chewing.

“Anders hasn’t told me much about you,” Penny began after they all had started their meal. “So, where are you from?”

Fenris momentarily froze. Penny looked over at Anders to see what she had done wrong and he was trying to discreetly shake his head to get her to change the subject. With an understanding look, Penny turned back to Fenris.

“I’m sorry, that really isn’t any of my business,” She said sincerely. “Besides with the amount that _some_ people in this place gossip, it’s understandable if you don’t want to say much.”

Having another spoonful of food, Fenris decided that Penny wasn’t particularly bad, not that he had ever though that she was in the first place.

“Excuse me!” Anders pointed a fork at Penny and squinted his eyes. “You say that like you don’t take part in all of the gossiping.”

As he ate, Fenris watched the two friends take part in their banter. It was rather entertaining.

Penny gasped as though scandalised and raised a dainty hand to her chest.

“I’ll have you know that I do not gossip. I merely pass on important information on people that may or may not be completely true,” Penny said.

“Which is gossiping,” Fenris added rather bluntly.

Penny let out a giggle, and Fenris was pretty sure that Anders had almost choked on his food.

“Minor details, Fenris, minor details.” She said while waving one hand dismissively.

Out of the corner of his eye, Fenris could see that Anders was now practically beaming.

The blond had been happy when Fenris had said he would join them but Anders had accepted that he would probably just sit there quietly. But now that Fenris was actually joining in with the conversation, Anders couldn’t help but smile. Maybe his charms were finally working.

Eventually, like every mealtime, the conversation drifted into gossip. Most of the gossip was provided by Penny since the only things Anders had heard had been things about Fenris. Although the rumours involved a lot of names he was unfamiliar with, Fenris still listened intently to the tales.

As he sat, occasionally joining in with the conversation when he was able to, and letting out a low chuckle every once in a while, Fenris couldn’t help but wonder if this is what it was like to have friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that I didn't get this out on Saturday but some things came up that I had to deal with so unfortunately this had to be put to the side, but here it is! Better late than never! 
> 
> Gosh I'm really hoping that I'm not rushing the whole Fenris/Anders friendship aspect but there's not really much I can do when Fenris is still not being particularly talkative. And plus the sooner I make them friends the sooner I can try and start the Fenders side of this. 
> 
> So yeah, I hope this chapter wasn't too bad! Oh, and if you spot any spelling mistakes please tell me so I can edit them! :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fenris' eavesdropping helps to start the ball rolling.

Fenris awoke with a groan. After growing up sleeping on hard flooring, he still wasn’t used to the beds that were in the Circle. They certainly weren’t the softest things in the world but anything is softer than concrete.

“Anders?” He called out but he received no reply.

Sitting up, he noticed that he couldn’t hear Anders’ nasally snoring from the bunk above. It wasn’t often that Anders awoke before Fenris but apparently this was one of those rare mornings.

Fenris stood up and stretched, grimacing at the load pops his back made.

As he changed from his sleepwear into his robes, he listened to the general noises of the Circle. He could hear the templars making their usual rounds but he couldn’t hear very many other people walking about.  It would probably be a while until breakfast which meant he could probably fit in a lap of the tower and maybe even some reading practice before the bell went.

The only people that were actively moving around seemed to be the younger apprentices and the templars, who were always doing rounds.

Fenris understood why the templars did rounds but obviously he didn’t enjoy the reality of it. The feeling of constantly being watched made him feel as though electricity was running under his skin. It really wasn’t something that he enjoyed, though he doubted that any mage appreciated being under such a restricting gaze all of the time.

Growing up how he did Fenris was used to not having any privacy but at least the slaves’ quarters had doors. According to Anders, none of the dorms had doors so that it was easier for templars that are walking past to check that everyone is where they should be and not doing anything they shouldn’t.

The eyes of the templars followed Fenris as he made his way in the direction of the library. He wasn’t planning on taking out a book; he just wanted to make sure that he knew where Anders was. There had been rumours going around that sometimes mages were taken away for their Harrowing in the night and some just don’t come back. It wasn’t that Fenris was worried about Anders, but he would rather check.

He poked his head through the large doorway. The usually bustling library was almost empty save for a few apprentices and one very tired looking templar that had been unlucky enough to have the night shift. From the curly blond hair, Fenris assumed that this was the Cullen that Penny had mentioned the other day.

On the table nearest the back, Fenris spotted Anders. He was pushing his blond hair out of his face with one hand while scribbling furiously with the other. Fenris rolled his eyes with a small smile; Anders had probably left some work until right before the deadline _again_.

Moving away from the doorframe, Fenris continued on his way. Walking around was the only form of exercise that was deemed acceptable so he made sure to keep himself active.

There was something eerie about walking around the Circle at such an early hour. The Circle was creepy enough as it was but when the hallways were empty and silent it made it seem as though you were in a horrid dream in the fade.

As Fenris walked towards the staircase on the other side of the floor, he passed the girls’ rooms and some whispers caught his attention. He probably wouldn’t have paid any attention to the murmurs if he hadn’t have caught Anders’ name.

He slowed down to a stop by one of the rooms where the conversation was coming from. Fenris had to stand close enough to hear but also far enough away that the girls in the room couldn’t see him. Trying to look as casual as he could, Fenris strained to listen to what they were saying.

“-not fair!” One of the girls said with a huff. “Irving just goes so easy on him! You can tell that he’s his favourite.”

“I know,” A different girl whispered in reply. “Every time that Anders escapes, he goes unpunished and then _we_ have to deal with the templars upping their guard.”

“Apparently they think he’d going to try again because they moved his boyfriend away, you know the one who-“

Fenris’ attention was snapped away from the girls’ conversation by the sound of heavy metal boots. He turned his head around to find a templar doing his routine lap of the floor.

The templar narrowed his eyes at Fenris as he walked closer, occasionally breaking eye contact to check in each room he passed.

“You there,” The templar said sternly. “What are you doing?”

Pausing, Fenris tried to think up a suitable response. The templar probably didn’t want to know that Fenris was eavesdropping so instead he looked at up with a confused expression.

“I was trying to find Senior Enchanter Wynne,” Fenris said.

The templar raised an eyebrow, obviously doubting the reliability of his story. Either the templar didn’t care what Fenris was actually doing or he just wanted to finish his patrol so he could go to bed because he just sighed and jerked his thumb behind him to send Fenris on his way.

Giving the templar a small nod, Fenris headed back up the way he came. Later, once that templar had gone far enough ahead, he’d continue with his laps of the tower.

The shrill ringing of the meal bell signalled the start of breakfast and Fenris hurried off. Hopefully, since he was already awake, the chunky porridge may still be warm by the time he gets there.

-

“You seem very deep in thought this morning,” Anders pointed out once they were sitting at their usual table.

Slowly but surely the rest of the apprentices and mages made their way into the hall, all in varying stages of waking up.

Anders had arrived in the hall just before Fenris. He had a long smudge of ink along his left cheek and Fenris was unsure whether or not he was supposed to mention it.

Ever since he heard those apprentices complaining this morning all Fenris could think about was the fact that Anders had escaped, multiple times apparently. Part of him knew that there was a chance that those girls weren’t telling the whole truth but he still couldn’t help the small bubble of hope that had begun to grow in his chest.

“Yes, well, I heard…” Fenris tapered off as he saw Penny walking towards them.

If he was going to ask Anders about escaping then perhaps it would be a better idea not to do it in such a public place. Even the smallest mention of the outside world seemed to draw suspicion from the templars. He would just have to wait until they were back in their room before he asked about it.

“Hmm?” Anders prompted with a spoon of porridge in his mouth.

Penny sat down across from Fenris and looked at the pair in curiosity.

“Nothing,” Fenris said quietly, turning his attention towards the lumpy breakfast.

Anders and Penny exchanged a confused look before the conversation drifted into idle chatter.

“Anders, you know you have ink on your face don’t you?” Penny asked, trying not to laugh.

The words seemed to wash over Fenris as he was once again wrapped up in his thoughts.

He slowly ate the porridge while wondering just _how_ Anders managed to escape and if it was something they he could recreate. This could be Fenris’ chance to get away from the templars, away from slavers, and away from Danarius.

Fenris couldn’t believe that he had forgotten about escaping. For the first few days he had been in the Circle escaping was all that Fenris could think about, although he could never come up with a good enough plan to actually attempt it. However after Anders’ offered to help him read and then the two became friends, Fenris had moved escaping to the back of his mind. It wasn’t as though he had just accepted life in the Circle, it was more that he had become preoccupied with current events like learning how to make friends and act more like a free man.

Anders watched Fenris play with his food and he couldn’t help but worry.

Anders wanted to ask what Fenris had tried to say for the remainder of the day but he every time he went to do so another task popped up that he had to do. First he had to hand in his overdue essay on the healing effects of spindleweed, elfroot, and foxmint. Then he had to attend another tutoring session to help to improve his spirit healing. The remainder of his day was then spent going back and forth between the senior enchanters handing in and collecting various other pieces of work.

It had probably been one of the busiest days he’d had in a while, and he was thankful to finally return back to his room later in the day.

“Fenris,” Anders said softly when he was getting ready for bed that night. “What were you going to say earlier?”

Fenris bit his lip wondering how to phrase his question. He averted his gaze from Anders as the blond changed to give him the illusion of privacy, even though seemed to be no such thing in the tower.

“This morning you were going to say something, what was it?” The blond asked again.

“Oh, I overheard some people talking,” Fenris said before dropping his voice low so that anyone outside of their small room wouldn’t be able to hear him. “Have you escaped before?”

Something changed on Anders’ face and the blond looked a bit more wary. He placed his robes in the trunk for the next day and moved over to where Fenris was laying on his bunk.

“Yeeees,” He drew out slowly. He didn’t know where this line of conversation was headed. “Why’s that?”

The bed creaked as Fenris moved to sit up and face Anders properly. His expression was one of determination.

“How?”

“Why do you want to know?” Anders asked cautiously, taking a small step back.

Although he and Fenris has gotten closer over the last few weeks, Anders couldn’t just reveal how he actually got out of the circle to just _anyone_. Besides, there was a few of his escapes where not even Irving knew how he did it and if anyone were to find out then he wouldn’t be able to use that route again.

Fenris slumped his shoulders.

“I…I need to get out of here,” he quietly said. “But I can’t do it alone.”

Fenris didn’t know enough of the Circle or Ferelden to escape successfully, but Anders knew how to do it. If they paired up then maybe, just maybe, he’d stand a chance.

In silence, Anders ran his fingers though his hair in thought. It made sense that Fenris wanted to leave, Fenris had spent too much of his early life in one cage to just accept living out the rest of his life in another.

Anders quickly looked in the direction of the open doorway before looking back to Fenris and moving in close.

“You want to escape? With me?” He asked.

Fenris nodded. Was it that hard to believe?

It couldn’t hurt, Anders supposed.  If he had someone else along with him when he escaped then maybe he could actually stay free. All of the previous attempts had resulted in him being caught relatively soon after his initial escape. Perhaps with another mind helping him they could create a watertight plan of action.

“Why not?” Anders said with a hint of a smile. “Sure, let’s do this. I’ve missed the feeling of sun on my skin and _lovely_ Ferelden dirt under my feet.”

Fenris’ lips twitched with a similar smile.

Pulling himself up onto his bunk, Anders spoke again.

“But we can’t do anything for the moment,” Anders explained as he leant over the bed frame to look at Fenris. “The templars are paying too much attention to everyone right now.”

The girls earlier had mentioned that. Did it really have something to do with Anders’ escapes like they said?

“Why’s that?” Fenris asked. If they were going to escape, he wanted to go as soon as possible. “Is there a chance that they will relax at some point?”

Fenris hadn’t noticed that the templars were particularly attentive, but then again whatever had caused them all to bring up their guard must have happened before he had been caught so he didn’t have anything to compare them to.

With a sigh Anders leaned back in his bed and stared at the ceiling above him. He’d have to do something about the cobwebs up there at some point.

“They will eventually,” Anders said. “They’re just expecting me to attempt to escape again soon.”

In the silence that followed Anders could practically heard Fenris asking why again, so he continued to explain.

“The templars – well Irving and Greagoir really – moved my friend Karl away. They think I’m a flight risk at the moment considering my history, so the Templars are keeping an eye on people more. Karl got transferred months ago though, meaning that if I keep behaving then they should start backing off soon.”

Slowly the lights in the corridor began to go out; soon the templars would be round to check that everyone was in bed.

“He was your boyfriend wasn’t he?” Fenris asked, making the link between Karl and the lover he had heard about that morning.

With a sad smile, Anders ran his finger along the side of the bed frame.

“For lack of a better word, I suppose he was.”

He began to pick at some of the flaking bits of wood. Whatever he and Karl had, they had never really talked about what it really was. The two were only in the beginning stages of their relationship when Karl went for his Harrowing, but that didn’t mean that the loss hurt any less.

“I… I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Fenris said softly.

Anders let out a quiet, sad laugh.

“Yeah, me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a bit nervous about this chapter since the words weren't flowing, it was like trying to get blood from a stone tbh. But i've read over it and I'm a lot happier about it than I originally was. I think this chapter is a bit shorter than the rest but I'm not too sure, but really this chapter is more just to address some things (like trying to fix the fact that in DA canon apprentices are all in a room together but in this I made them have roommates) and get the ball rolling for the rest of the story. So yeah, the boys are actually beginning to get down to business now B)
> 
> Also this has reached 11k ahh I'm really happy about that since I usually only write shorter things. I think the longest fic i've ever written was 18k and I'm hoping to beat that.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> slightly filler, bonding chapter ahh

Anders picked at the dirt underneath his nails; Irving was taking a long time to finish talking to Greagoir. He had been in the middle of breakfast when one of the new templar recruits came and found him saying that Irving wanted to speak to him. He didn’t really mind waiting though, because for once Anders knew that he wasn’t in trouble since as far as he knew, he hadn’t done anything wrong recently. At least not anything that could be linked back to him.

He waited for a couple more minutes before Irving’s office door finally swung open and Greagoir walked out. The older templar seemed his usual grumpy self. The two exchanged a few seconds of eye contact then Greagoir headed off down the corridor. Unfortunately Irving’s door was too thick to allow Anders’ to listen in on their conversation so he didn’t know whether his meeting had anything to do with what Greagoir and Irving may have discussed.

He would probably find out eventually though.

“Anders, you may come in now.” Irving’s voice called out.

Pushing the door aside, Anders entered the office and was hit with the strong scent of honey and elfroot tea.

The First Enchanter gestured to the chair in front of his cluttered desk. Irving waited for Anders to take a seat before speaking again.

“Now Anders, how have you and Fenris been getting along?” he asked, leaning forward and linking his fingers together.

Anders resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow at the question. It didn’t make sense that Irving was asking Anders about this. If Irving was asking in order to discover whether Fenris had settled in okay, then surely it would have made more sense to ask Fenris directly.

“We’ve been getting along just fine,” Anders replied.

A smile flashed on Irving’s face but it quickly vanished and his face returned to the neutral expression that had been there previously.

“That’s good,” Irving said. “It’s nice to see you making such good friends.”

It became clear to Anders as their conversation continued on that this meeting was Irving’s way of assessing whether Anders was going to escape again soon. Realising this, Anders knew that if that was the case then he needed to convince Irving that he wasn’t planning anything at all.

Trying to suppress a smirk, Anders told Irving about the fact that he was giving Fenris lessons to improve his reading and even made up some story about taking an interest in primal magic and that because of that Penny had agreed to tutor him in it. He hoped that by talking about some long-term goals, Anders could convince Irving that he had a reason to stay. Even if in reality he was planning to leave with the help of Fenris, who Irving had paired with Anders to try and make him stay. Anders had to bite his lip to not laugh at the irony of it.

“That’s excellent!” Irving said. “I had suspected that Fenris had difficulty with reading and writing, I’m surprised that he hasn’t spoken up about it though. He must be really struggling with his classes if that’s the case.”

Anders nodded.

“That’s why I’m trying to help him,” He replied.

Irving seemed happy enough with all of Anders’ responses and gave a nod before quickly writing something down on one of the pieces of parchment on his desk. However, the towers of books that were also on the desk meant that Anders couldn’t see exactly what he had written down.

“Thank you, Anders. You’re dismissed,” Irving told him.

Getting up to leave, Anders was stopped momentarily by Irving putting his hand on his arm.

“Please, keep out of trouble Anders.”

Anders gave an over the top, charming smile.

“I’ll try my best,” He said before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.

Hopefully Irving would believe that Anders no longer wanted to escape and then when he has his next meeting with Greagoir – which would most likely be soon – he’ll tell him that the escape threat has passed and to tell the templars to return to how they were before. Granted, the templars wouldn’t act very differently but they would still be less likely to get caught than they would do if they attempted an escape now.

With a cheeky smile and a slight skip to his step, Anders headed back to the hall. He hoped that nobody had eaten his breakfast while he had been gone.

-

After their lessons for the day, Anders spent the hours until dinner helping Fenris with his writing. Although Fenris didn’t like to have attention drawn to the fact that he was only just learning how to read and write, writing wasn’t something that they could do in their room. Reading could be practiced anywhere, but it was easier to practice writing if you had a table to lean on.

As they sat in the library, Fenris felt a smile tug at his lips as he found he could read some of the words that had been carved into the table over the years. He couldn’t read all of it but he could make out the odd word and phrases such as ‘Lily was here’ and ‘Greagoir smells’.

Anders finished copying out the alphabet as neatly as he could. Once he finished, he handed the quill and ink to Fenris so that he could copy out the letters below.

“Now, just write them out underneath,” Anders said after helping Fenris hold the quill correctly. “No need to rush, take your time.”

As Fenris’ shaking hand slowly moved to copy the angular letter, his rolled his oversized sleeve up to keep it out of the way. He managed to make it halfway through the alphabet before his sleeve flopped back down onto the page, knocking over the ink pot and ruining all of his work.

“Vishante kaffas!” Fenris hissed at his now ink stained cuff.

Anders helped to dab away the spilled ink with some of the scrap paper they had been practicing on previously. He watched as Fenris attempted to roll his sleeve up again and remembered what he had said he was going to do back when Fenris first turned up. He had told himself that he was going to try and get Penny to take in Fenris’ robes. A sickening feeling of guilt settled in his stomach.

“Maybe we should postpone writing practice for the moment,” Anders said with a soft chuckle. “Besides, I have an idea!”

Fenris stopped shaking his inky sleeve and looked towards Anders with an eyebrow raised.

“It isn’t going to involve trying to put powered rashvine in Cullen’s armour is it?” He asked letting out a deep laugh that made Anders’ stomach flip in a way that he hadn’t felt in ages. “I don’t want to have to go through another one of Wynne’s lectures. We’re just lucky that she didn’t tell Irving.”

Waving his hand dismissively, Anders stood up and beckoned Fenris to follow him. The elf slowly rose, still curious and cautious as to what Anders’ plan was. With an amused shake of his head, he followed Anders out of the room and in the direction of the girls’ dorms.

“Anders, as much as surprises thrill me,” Fenris said sarcastically. “Where _are_ we going?”

Anders turned on his heel so that he was walking backwards.

“We’re going to see Penny,” He said, before turning back so he was facing forwards.

“That’s your idea?” Fenris asked. “Honestly, I was expecting something different from just visiting a friend.”

As they approached Penny’s room, Anders smiled.

“Actually, I’m going to see if she can do something about your robes.”

Fenris raised an eyebrow, what was Anders talking about? Aside from the new ink stain on his sleeve, the robes were fine. Maybe they were a bit on the large side but he would rather them be too big than too small.

The two found Penny doodling away in a large leather bound notebook. When Anders knocked on the wall beside her doorway, she looked up. Instantly her face broke into a large smile.

“Anders! Fenris!” She said standing up to meet them at the doorway. Then, a worried expression soon appeared on her face. “You don’t usually come to my room, what’s the matter?”

Anders entered the small room and Fenris quickly followed after him.

“I’ve come to ask for a favour,” Anders explained.

Penny sighed, “No Anders, I’m not going to give you your book back. I won it fair and square. Plus I’ve only just gotten to the _good bits_.”

For a moment, Anders stood there confused before he realised that she was talking about the smutty Orlesian book that he’d lost to her in a game of Wicked Grace. He never was very good at that game.

“Maker, _no_.” Anders said as Fenris laughed beside him. “Actually, I was wondering if you could adjust Fenris’ robes to make them fit a bit better.”

Penny gave a determined nod as she gave Fenris a quick once over. She kept nodding in thought as she looked at how the robes currently fitted Fenris. Fenris was particularly short, even for an elf, so the robes would definitely have to be taken up; they would also have to be taken in around the shoulders too. All in all, it shouldn’t be a particularly hard job.

“Why didn’t you come and find me earlier?” She laughed. “Of course I’ll do it.”

Anders sighed in relief; although it wasn’t likely that she would refuse he had still been afraid that she would.

“Thank you,” Fenris said sincerely. “I really appreciate your help.”

Penny placed a hand on Fenris’ shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. The elf tensed temporarily at the sudden contact but slowly he gave her a soft smile.

“No thanks needed, this is what friends do.” Penny told Fenris, before turning and pointing a finger at Anders. “You, go to Owain and ask for some needles and thread. Fenris and I will stay here so I can take measurements.”

Giving a nod, Anders left for the stockroom. He gave a quick glance behind him to see Penny holding up a long strip of material with lots of little measurements on it to Fenris’ shoulders. As far as Anders knew, Fenris had never spoken to Penny by himself so he hoped that this would let the two of them bond more.

Owain was where he always was, in the middle of the stockroom. Anders wondered whether the man ever left the room. There was once a rumour that went around that Owain didn’t even leave to restock the supplies.

“Welcome to the Circle’s stockroom of magical items. My name is Owain. How may I assist you?” Owain asked in the monotone way that all tranquil shared.

“Hello Owain,” Anders greeted, he always tried to be as polite as possible to the tranquil.

He watched as Owain slightly tilted his head forward in his own form of greeting.

“How may I assist you?” Owain repeated.

“I need some needles, thread, paper, and some ink if you have any.” Anders explained.

As tempted as Anders was to begin stocking up for his and Fenris’ escape, he knew that certain items that they would need would draw attention if Anders asked for them. When their plans were more refined then he would most likely have to ask Fenris to get the things he needs.

Without another word, Owain turned towards the boxes behind him and began to search through them. The storeroom crates must have been extremely well organised because Owain came back only a few minutes later, his arms full of everything that Anders had asked for.

“Here are the items that you had requested.” Owain said, handing them over.

Anders held the stack of paper and balanced the ink pot, thread, and needles on top of it.

“Thank you, Owain.”

He gave the tranquil a small, sad smile before making his way back to Penny’s room. The ink pot kept wobbling as he walked and he had to walk slowly in order to prevent it from falling and shattering on the floor.

Anders was watching the ink pot when he walked into the room.

“Penny, I have everything you wan…” Anders’ words caught in his throat as he looked up and saw Fenris standing in his smallclothes in the middle of the room with Penny taking down measurements.

Who knew that under those robes the elf was so toned. His months on the run and having to fend for himself had obvious built up some muscle that his time in the Circle had yet to shift. Anders’ eyes drifted down and _wow those markings really do go everywhere_.  Realising what he was doing Anders snapped his eyes up and turned around in a movement so quick that the ink pot slid off of the stack of paper and rolled along the floor. At least it didn’t smash.

“Sorry!” Anders exclaimed trying to fight an unwanted feeling that the sight had caused.

From behind him, Anders could hear Penny’s soft giggle.

“Stop being such a prude and come in here,” She called out teasingly. “Besides, I can’t do much without that needle and thread.”

Swallowing, Anders turned around. Fenris was quickly putting his oversized robes back on and Anders’ could have sworn he saw that the tips of Fenris’ ears had turned pink, although that could have easily been a trick of the light.

Penny wrapped up the measuring tape and went over to pick up the pot of ink. She then handed the pot to Anders, while taking the needles and thread.

“Now, it shouldn’t take me more than a week or so to make all of the adjustments I need to,” Penny explained as she stashed away the items and the sheet of measurements in her trunk.

Fenris tilted his head in confusion.

“Do you not want my robes then?” He asked.

He didn’t understand how she could alter his robes without actually having the robes to alter. Penny shook her head.

“I’ll just get some spare robes from someone and alter those, there’s no need for you to walk around naked. If you did I feel as though Anders would probably pass out.” She said.

Anders straightened his back.

“Hey, it was simply because of the heat! Those storerooms are very stuffy you know,” He shot back weakly. The blush on his cheeks was starting to come back again despite his best to stop it.

Penny laughed at his pathetic lie, he was even sure that he could hear Fenris chuckling quietly although he didn’t know if Fenris was laughing for the same reasons that Penny was.

“Okay now I need you to both leave so that I can get to work on this,” Penny said ushering the two boys out of her room.

After being shoved out into the hallway, Fenris and Anders looked at one another.

“Stuffy storerooms?” Fenris asked with a smirk as the two of them walked back towards their own room.

Anders ducked his head. He had hoped that Fenris hadn’t noticed how bad his comeback was. Besides, what was Anders supposed to say? Hey Fenris I think you’re incredibly attractive and seeing you almost naked makes me incredibly flustered? That wouldn’t work, not when it was established right at the start that Fenris wasn’t interested.

“Oh hush you,” Anders quipped.

The chuckle from Fenris than Anders got in reply made Anders’ heart beat just a bit faster.

Well, _shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this chapter was a bit of a filler chapter to allow me to develop everyone's relationship a bit more, I thought that I'd upload it as quickly as possible so that I can get working on the next one. I want to try and get as much of this fic written before I go on holiday in little under a month.


	7. Chapter 7

Anders had completely forgotten about his meeting with Irving. The meeting itself seemed relatively insignificant but it – hopefully – meant that they could get underway with their plan so he probably should have remembered to tell Fenris about it. However it was hard to remember things like a boring talk with Irving when your mind was full of flashes of tanned skin and swirling white lines. Using your imagination to create such images was one thing but when he had actually seen it with his own two eyes… _well_.

A heavy, tired sigh drew Anders from his less than pure thoughts. Jumping to attention, Anders snapped his head up from where it had been resting on his hand.

“Anders, would you care to repeat what I just said?” Senior Enchanter Wynne asked.

She had her arms crossed over her chest and her expression was one of quickly dwindling patience. One eyebrow was raised as she waited for the answer to a question that Anders had only just caught the end of.

“Uh…”

Wynne dropped her arms with another sigh. Anders was bright boy and he could definitely be a good Spirit Healer if he actually applied himself. Maybe she should talk to Irving about doing some one-to-one tutoring so that Anders had no choice but to focus.

“Anders, can you _please_ pay attention?” Wynne said wearily.

Anders was pretty sure that he heard Finn mutter something under his breath in an annoyed tone. The other three members of his class then began to snicker and Anders ducked his head.

Healing really wasn’t a path that many mages in the Circle followed, many wanted to focus more on the primal sorts of magic. Since Anders discovered that he had an affinity for Spirit Healing he had to attend Wynne’s classes. It wasn’t as though Anders didn’t care about healing, but it wasn’t something he had ever considered before that point.

“Sorry,” Anders apologised and tried to focus on what Wynne was saying.

With an appreciative nod, Wynne continued with her lesson.

Anders managed all of five minutes of focussing before his mind began to drift once again away from how to properly dress wounds and reduce to risk of attention. Normally he didn’t mind Wynne’s lessons, healing was all rather interesting once you actually got into it, but today he would rather stare just off to the left of Wynne so it looked as though he was paying attention and let his mind drift.

On the opposite side of the giant library, Fenris had a one-on-one lesson with Irving. Apparently Irving was concerned about Fenris falling behind in his classes and had decided to take the elf under his wing.

As much as he appreciated the thought, Fenris didn’t know where it had suddenly come from. He came to the conclusion that one of his teachers had had a talk with Irving.

“Can you try making a flame again?” Irving asked for the fifth time that session.

Fenris’ mana was running low by this point which meant that his body had automatically begun to draw from his lyrium markings. As every inch of his body ached and protested Fenris thanked the fact that they only had one lesson a day. If he had to perform spells for hours on end Fenris probably would end up as a practice dummy for the healing class.

Closing his eyes, Fenris focuses on drawing what little mana he had left. A bead of sweat rolled down Fenris’ temple as a small orange flame appeared above his outstretched hand. Irving smiled encouragingly at Fenris’ effort. Fenris managed to maintain the flickering flame for a few seconds before he unintentionally began to draw from his markings. The sudden pain caused Fenris to lose concentration and the fire spluttered out as though it had been doused in water.

Irving let out a quiet sigh and gave Fenris a reassuring pat on the shoulder. They could continue the lesson and try to build up Fenris’ mana supply so that casting spells wouldn’t be so painful for him, but the Circle was nearly at the end of their stock lyrium potions.

“I think that will do for today,” Irving said. “Go back to your room and rest Fenris, you’ve done well.”

Fenris gave Irving a nod of acknowledgement and thanks before heading out of the library. The only thing he wanted to do now was to lie down and sleep. He wasn’t usually one for sleeping in the middle of the day but he was feeling light headed due to over exerting himself. Anders wasn’t likely to finish his lesson for another hour and Penny was helping out with one of the younger classes so Fenris could happily sleep without fear of being woken up or missing out on anything.

Irving frowned as he watched Fenris leave. Irving would be lying if he said he wasn’t worried about Fenris’ Harrowing. The effects of Fenris’ markings weren’t something that he fully understood, and he doubted that Fenris knew much about how they worked either. The extra lyrium could either help significantly when they eventually send him into the fade or have some kind of unpredictable and dangerous reaction. However, Irving was determined to try and help Fenris as much as he could so that the young man would be able to do his best during his Harrowing.

Once Anders’ lesson was over, he retreated back to his room. He had been thinking that maybe he could help Fenris with some more reading this afternoon. Fenris was rapidly improving – probably due to the fact that he was constantly practicing. His handwriting was also improving, it was still shaky and his spelling definitely needed some work but he was doing well.

“Hey Fen-“ Anders began as he walked into the room, his words dying on his tongue as he spotted the elf laying curled up on his bunk asleep.

Fenris looked so angelic when he was sleeping, he just seemed so peaceful. With each soft breath, his fringe fluttered and Anders had to stop himself when he moved his hand with the intention of gently brushing aside Fenris’ hair. Instead he opted for gently nudging Fenris’ arm.

Soon Fenris’ eyes blinked open, revealing his forest green eyes.

“What time is it?” Fenris asked, his voice was husky from sleep.

Anders made a gesture to get Fenris to scoot up in the bed. He then sat down in the space provided when Fenris moved. Fenris was still half lying down and rather confused at this point having only just woken up.

“It’s not too late,” Anders replied. “I’ve only just finished my class.”

Stifling a yawn, Fenris rubbed his eyes with one hand while pushing himself to sit up with the other.

The two sat in companionable silence for a few minutes while Fenris woke up properly. The short moment of rest was just what he needed, his mana had regenerated and Fenris no longer felt dizzy or nauseated. However he was still slightly groggy from sleep, but that would pass soon enough.

“Have you noticed that there are less templar rounds than usual?” Fenris asked as one of the newer templar recruits walked past, quickly peeking into their room.

Over the past couple of days Fenris had noticed that the amount of templars he had seen doing rounds seemed to have decreased. It hadn’t decreased significantly because obviously the tower still required security but it there had been just enough of a change to the templars’ activity that Fenris felt a bit less on edge all of the time.

“Oh yeah!” Anders said, remembering. “I had a meeting with Irving a few days ago.”

Fenris raised an eyebrow and folded his hands in his lap as he listened.

“What did he talk to you about?” asked Fenris.

“He asked a few questions about you and how we’re getting on,” Anders explained. “It was all just to make sure that we’re friends and that I don’t want to leave. I played it up a bit, made up some things about extra lessons to make it seem like I’m not going anywhere.”

A small smile grew on Fenris’ face, this was great news.

“We can try and escape soon then?” Fenris asked.

Anders widened his eyes at the volume at which Fenris had asked and put a hand over the elf’s mouth. Fenris blinked a few times at the sudden, odd contact before pulling back.

“Shhh!” Anders hissed. “Try not to talk so loudly about it.”

With an apologetic nod, Fenris spoke again but much quieter.

“Do you have a plan yet?”

Anders smiled a large, mischievous smile. It was one that Fenris struggled to resist the urge to mirror. There was something about Anders’ smiles that were infectious.

“I have something,” Anders said. “But it will require gathering a fair few items.”

“What can I do?” Fenris asked.

Leaning in, Anders whispered a rough plan to Fenris. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Fenris enough to tell him the whole plan in detail but it was just that because of how risky it all is, the plan could very likely change. For the moment, all Anders told him what that they needed a rod of fire and fabric.

“We’d need a signature for the request form though,” Anders explained. “I can’t go and ask for one since I’m already on their watch list for ‘potentially dangerous items’. Also, I’m learning healing, there’s no valid reason for me to have a rod of fire.”

Fenris nodded, already knowing where this was going.

“So I need to ask one of the senior enchanters to sign this form for me?” He asked for clarification, Anders nodded.

Despite being part of the Circle for a while now, it was shocking that Fenris didn’t know all of the Senior Enchanters yet. He’s only ever had conversations with Wynne and the older man who was often organising the books whose name he couldn’t remember.

“I don’t know any of the Senior Enchanters well enough to ask for them to sign such a form,” Fenris admitted. Besides, if he said that he needed a rod of fire his go to excuse would be for some kind of experiment but Fenris wasn’t exactly known for his academic exploits.

“Is there any other way to get the rod?” asked Fenris.

Pouting, Anders thought for a moment. They could try and steal one but they would be discovered as soon as Owain checked the supplies.

“We could try and forge the signature,” suggested Fenris, the beginnings of a smirk tugging at his lips.

Anders sat up straighter with his eyebrows raised.

“That’s a fantastic idea!” Anders exclaimed, before realising just how loud he was being. “We need to break into Irving’s office.”

Anders put his arm in front of Fenris to stop him when they were just down the hall from Irving’s office. They had discussed their plan of action in hushed whispers on their way from their room. Fenris was to get Irving out of his office and distract him while Anders sneaks in and finds a letter, report, request form, or _anything_ with a signature on.

“I’ll wait here,” Anders told him. “Just make sure that you go the other way around so that Irving doesn’t spot me.”

With a nod, Fenris walked up to Irving’s door and knocked three times on it. He didn’t have to wait long before he was called in.

“Ah Fenris,” Irving said, not doing a good job at hiding his surprise. “Are you feeling better?”

“Much, thank you.” Fenris glanced around the room before speaking again. “I was wondering though if we would be able to practice my flames again. My mana is fully replenished and I’m eager to try again.”

Irving considered it for a moment. As much as it pleased him to know that Fenris was keen to learn and improve his skills, he didn’t want it to mean that Fenris was risking his own health. However, Irving was certain that Fenris would stop or say something if he met his limit.

“Of course,” Irving agreed. “Shall we head to the library?”

The First Enchanter rose slowly from his chair and followed Fenris out of his office. Once out in the hall, Fenris spotted Anders standing casually a few meters away. He sped up and walked just ahead of Irving to guide him in the opposite direction to Anders.

Anders watched as Irving and Fenris left. He waited for a few seconds to make sure that the hallway was cleared of other mages and templars before he pushed open the door and slid in to the room.

There was something exciting about being in Irving’s office without the older mage actually being there. He was so tempted to rummage through all of the chests and boxes around the room just out of pure curiosity but he knew that there wouldn’t be anything of use in them. Instead, he headed straight for the desk in the centre of the room.

The top of the desk was covered in papers, books, and scrolls. Anders gently poked through the items to see if there was anything there that they could use. Unfortunately it just seemed to be mainly notes from Greagoir about various rumours he had overheard that they should look into as well as potion recipes.  As Anders rummaged, he tried to keep the papers more or less where he found them so that when Irving returned, it hopefully wouldn’t look as though someone had been looking through his things.

“Where _are_ you?” Anders mumbled under his breath.

Pulling open the drawers of the desk, Anders began to search through them. He found yet more recipes, useless notes, and even a few letters from what seemed to be an _old flame_. Anders couldn’t imagine Irving being involved with anyone, romantically or sexually and as his eyes skimmed the first of the raunchy letters Anders cringed and put them back. He really hoped that he could forget what he just read because he didn’t want to think about the old First Enchanter doing the things that had been described.

Eventually, at the bottom of the second drawer Anders came across a pile an old note from Wynne requesting a wider variety of herbs to be stocked so that they could expand their potion making class. The note was short and at the bottom in a thin curled font was her signature with her name printed underneath that.

With a wide grin he shoved the note into his robes and slammed shut the drawer.  He glanced quickly out of the office and down the corridor to check that it was clear before he swiftly walked back towards his room.

“Where did you go and why do you look like death warmed over?” Anders asked when Fenris finally returned.

Fenris looked _exhausted._ He looked pale, sweaty, and his eyes were worryingly unfocused. If it wasn’t the fact that Fenris seemed completely healthy not too long ago he would have thought that Fenris had the flu or something.

The elf waved his hand dismissively.

“The only way I could think of to distract Irving was to ask for another lesson,” Fenris explained, keeping himself upright by leaning on the wall. Anders put an arm around Fenris’ shoulders and helped him back towards the bed.

Fenris bit back a pained hiss as the contact caused pressure on his already throbbing markings.

“I’ll be fine once I stop aching, do not worry,” Fenris said with a small, tired smile. “Did you get the signature?”

Anders was still worried about Fenris but he chose not to let his healer instincts kick in and force Fenris to lay down until he felt better.

“That I did,” Anders replied, waving the note in the air. “Shall we get started?”

With a determined nod, Fenris pulled out the quills, ink, and parchment that he kept underneath his bed so that he could easily practice his writing whenever he could. Anders went to the chest and picked up some hardback books for them to lean on.

-

“Okay this is a terrible idea,” Anders sighed loudly as he looked at all of the failed forgery attempts that he and Fenris had made. “We both have terrible handwriting!”

Anders tended to press too hard when he wrote and his normal handwriting was far too angular to correctly pull of Wynne’s elegant and thin script. Fenris on the other hand could perfectly recreate the thin nature of her signature but he was still getting used to writing so his attempts were shaky and almost illegible.

Fenris – now feeling considerably better than he did earlier – leaned back on the bed in defeat.

“What about Penny?” Fenris asked, suddenly getting an idea.

Anders looked up from where he was once again making another attempt at copying the signature. His eyes kept flicking between what he was writing and the original copy of the signature on the note.

“What about her?” Anders replied.

Rolling his eyes, Fenris propped himself up on his forearms.

“Could we not just get Penny to copy it for us?” He asked.

Surely Penny would help them if they asked, she was a good friend and if they just explained the situation then she wouldn’t refuse. Plus it wasn’t likely that she would run off and tell the templars about their plans because she liked them and they’ve known her long enough to know that it would be out of character for her to betray them like that.

Anders laughed. He saw Fenris’ confused face and he regretted laughing since Fenris clearly didn’t know what was so funny.

“She has worse handwriting than us,” Anders told him. “It’s like someone tied a pencil to a drunken nug.”

The imagery made Fenris chuckle, which then caused Anders to laugh too. Discarding the signature attempts under the bed, Anders fell backwards onto the mattress so that he was lying beside Fenris.

“Ugh,” Anders grunted staring up at the underside of his own bunk. Well, what do you know, there _was_ a crude drawing carved into the wooden frame. Anders had probably carved it way back when Fenris’ bunk was his. “We may have the rethink our plan.”

Fenris noticed the sad tone in which Anders spoke. A thick, heavy feeling collected in Fenris’ throat and stomach at just how sad he sounded. Unaware of how he could comfort the blond, Fenris turned onto his side and put a hand gently on Anders’ upper arm and smiled.

“We can do this, Anders.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh boy this chapter is like 3k... honestly I didn't expect it to be this long, I thought it was just going to be a short almost filler chapter but well, apparently not since it's the longest chapter I've written so far oops. 
> 
> I've finished planning the remaining chapters so have no fear, this fic will not be abandoned! I'm going to try and write up another chapter this week if I have time so I can schedule it to post next week because unfortunately I'm going to be a bit busy since I'm going on holiday for a few weeks. :D


	8. Chapter 8

Anders had given up on the forgery idea meaning that after dinner, in the hours before the templars checked to make sure each and every mage was in their individual bed, the blond spent his time plotting. Anders lay on his back, staring at the ceiling, and muttering under his breath. Fenris couldn’t hear everything that he was saying but it was obvious that he was trying to rework their plan because everyone now and again he could hear Anders say, “No, that won’t work...” and then grumble.

Fenris sat on his own bunk using Anders’ book as a miniature table continuing to practice the stolen signature. Whether they actually did use the signature plan in the end didn’t really matter to Fenris because either way this was good practice for neatening his handwriting. He had gone through so much parchment and ink however, that he had to stop by the stockroom after dinner to collect more.

“Are you still practicing that?” Anders asked when he came down the bunk bed ladder to get changed for bed.

Fenris didn’t look up to reply, he just kept looking between the note and the parchment he was writing on. Slowly but surely the shapes were becoming less wobbly-looking and beginning to look more like the signature the scribbles were supposed to be copies of. He had even copied out a few lines of the book that Anders had him practicing his reading with at the moment so that he could keep track of his progress.

“It’s helping me improve,” Fenris explained. “My letters are beginning to look more like letters now.”

Anders discarded his robes and placed them into the chest. After pulling the itchy sleep clothes over his yeah, Anders looked over Fenris’ work. He smiled and climbed up the ladder.

“It’s looking really good, Fenris,” Anders said which caused Fenris to duck his head and for the tips of his pointed ears to blush.

Biting back a soppy smile at the reaction he received, Anders tucked himself up underneath the blankets. Anders had noticed that Fenris had been blushing a lot recently and to be quite honest, he wasn’t completely certain as to why that was. But each time he saw Fenris blush like that it made Anders heart flutter, which was also something that Anders had noticed had been happening more and more frequently.

“Lights out!” A templar yelled out from the other end of the hallway.

The sound of heavy metal plate could be heard as the templar made her way down the hallway, checking in each room and putting out the lights in the hall as she went.

Fenris rushed to shove his papers and ink underneath the bed and almost dived under the bed covers to hide the fact that he had previously been too preoccupied to change into his sleep wear. Closing his eyes, Fenris steadied his breathing and attempted to look as though he was fast asleep.

The templar soon poked her head into the room. She looked incredibly scrawny for a templar, she was probably the same height as Fenris and her armour looked as though it was a few sizes too big.  The templar glanced at Fenris and then stood on her tip toes to check that Anders was in his bunk. She nodded, mainly to herself, before going to check on the next room.

“Night Fen,” Anders said sleepily.

The lights in the hallway slowly went out and the room was plunged into darkness. Normally there would be some pale light in the room due to the star light from outside coming in through the window, but the weather had been horrid recently and the sky was dark with rainclouds.

“Goodnight Anders,” Fenris replied softly.

When Fenris heard Anders turn over in order to go to sleep, he reached underneath the bed to collect his writing supplies. He had to move slowly in order to prevent the bed from creaking or moving too much.

Placing Anders’ book on his lap and taking a few sheets of parchment, he began to write. Thankfully due to his elven eyes, his night vision was better than a human’s. Despite the darkness, Fenris could still see well enough to continue practicing the signature.

After going through another sheet of parchment Fenris began to debate whether he wanted to perfect this signature for the sake of improving his own handwriting, in order to help them escape, or just because the idea of this forging Wynne’s signature meant so much to Anders. He decided that it didn’t really matter at the end of the day so he just continued repeating the swirling words over and over late into the night.

When Anders woke in the morning, the first thing he did was to climb down from his bunk to get changed. He had been changing when he heard a soft grunt and the sound of smashing glass from behind him.

Anders turned on his heel to find Fenris – still in his Circle robes – lying face first and asleep on his bunk, surrounded by parchment and ink. Apparently the sound of glass had been Fenris knocking the empty ink pot off of the bed in his sleep. Large chunks of glass pot were scattered on the cold stone floor.

“Shit,” Anders cursed under his breath as not to wake Fenris up.

Had Fenris stayed up all night writing? Anders didn’t know if that made Fenris dedicated or stupid by risking being caught being awake and active after lights out. Anders carefully tried to pick up the pieces of glass. _Probably a bit of both,_ he decided with a smile.

As soon as he had collected the shards of glass and placed them out of the way in the corner, the bell for breakfast rang out. Anders must have woken up a lot later than he originally realised.

When Fenris made no signs of movement, Anders walked over and gently shook his shoulder to wake him up. The elf jolted awake with an undignified snort and Anders had to stop himself laughing out loud by biting his lip.

“C’mon,” Anders urged, “We’re going to miss breakfast.”

Fenris looked up at him with an adorably sleepy face.

“I did it.” was all he said.

“Did what?”

Fenris wasn’t making much sense and Anders was almost certain that it was because Fenris was still half asleep.

“I copied the signature.”

Anders paused and just blinked at Fenris a few times. He wasn’t sure that he had heard him correctly.

“You did?” Anders asked trying to hide his excitement.

Now more awake, Fenris held up a sheet of parchment that was slightly wrinkled from where his head had been resting on it. The whole page was covered in signatures that were almost completely identical to the original one from the note.

Fenris had stayed up until the early hours of the morning trying again and again to perfect it. It took hours and it seemed that in the end he must have passed out shortly after finally getting the hang of it.

In order to show Anders exactly what he meant, Fenris took the quill that was still slightly wet with ink and copied the signature perfectly onto the nearest piece of parchment. Silently, he handed it to Anders who took the parchment and inspected it closely next to the original note.

“Maker’s breath!” Anders exclaimed with a huge grin. “Fenris I could just _kiss_ you right now!”

If Fenris could recreate Senior Enchanter Wynne’s signature on the request form that Anders still needed to get from Owain then it was almost certain that they could get their rod of fire. Anders was incredibly relieved, no matter how hard he thought yesterday he still hadn’t been able to come up with another way of getting the rod of fire without bringing in Penny or anyone else.

Anders was so lost in his own internal thoughts that he didn’t realise the deep pink blush that had crept its way onto Fenris’ face. Fenris wasn’t sure whether Anders was being honest or if it was some kind of Ferelden saying. Fereldens had lots of odd saying he’d noticed, like ‘it’s raining cats and mabari’ which apparently just meant that it was raining a lot rather than animals actually coming from the sky. Anders also tended to curse a lot using Andraste’s body parts, but he didn’t know whether that was a Ferelden thing or just something that Anders did.

When Anders did notice Fenris’ blushing and sudden avoidance of eye contact, what he had said finally sunk in. Anders’ raised his eyebrows as he felt his face heat up. He didn’t think that he had said that out loud.

Turning away from Fenris quickly, Anders cleared his throat.

“Uh,” He started awkwardly. “Breakfast. I mean- we should go to breakfast… yes.”

Fenris nodded and stashed away all of the parchment inside of his pillowcase. He didn’t want to leave the previous attempts out in the open for the templars to find. He probably could have hidden the pages under his bed but now that they actually had incriminating evidence on them he thought that just putting them under the bed seemed a bit too obvious of a hiding place.

Anders didn’t wait for Fenris before rushing off to breakfast. As Fenris was left following after Anders with very little chance of catching up to the long-legged human, Fenris couldn’t help but wonder if he had done something wrong to make Anders run like that.

When Fenris arrived at breakfast, his shoulders were hunched with worry, a fact that Penny picked up on immediately.

She gave Anders a critical look, wondering whether he had gone and said something stupid to Fenris again but she noticed that Anders looked even deeper in thought than Fenris. Something had happened.

“Fenris,” She said trying to break the silence. The elf looked up immediately. “You have some ink on your nose just – here.” Penny gestures to the left side of her nose.

“Oh, thank you.”

Licking his thumb, Fenris began to rub at the ink that had been there. The ink had obviously stained his skin because although he had rubbed pretty hard, Penny could still see a dark smudge of where it had been.

Penny was hoping that perhaps that would have sparked a conversation or something but evidently not as Fenris turned back to his porridge.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Penny asked in her best authoritative tone.

Both boys turned their attention to the small human. They both had their best ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ faces on; it was the same face that Anders tended to pull whenever Greagoir accused him of doing something.

“Nothing,” Anders and Fenris said in unison.

Penny used this opportunity to properly look at her friends. The way that Fenris was sitting, almost curled in on himself most likely meant that he was worried about something, although she couldn’t tell just from looking at him what it was. Anders on the other hand, was avoiding looking her in the eye and there were the remnants of flush on his cheeks. Anders was embarrassed about something.

She raised an eyebrow at them to show that she didn’t believe them, but she didn’t press the issue. If the two had had had an argument or anything like that then it would probably be better that they sort it out in private. Penny wasn’t certain but ever since the whole ‘stuffy storeroom’ incident she had the inkling that something beyond platonic was going on between Fenris and Anders.

With a small shake of her head, Penny returned to eating her breakfast. Their usually lively table was silent.

As Fenris ate, he told himself that as soon as they returned to their room, he would apologise to Anders for whatever he had done to make him run off like that. Anders and Penny were the only friends he had ever had and he would hate to lose Anders to something as silly as saying something or doing something that he didn’t realise upset the blond.

Besides Fenris, Anders was having a similar train of thought. He hadn’t intended for the kiss comment to slip out but with the amount that he had been thinking of kissing the elf recently maybe it was only a matter of time before this happened. Regardless, he felt that he should apologise.

-

“I apologise,” Fenris said as soon as the pair returned back to their room at the same time Anders said, “I’m sorry.”

They both paused at one another in confusion. Neither could figure out why the other was apologising when they were clearly the one in the wrong.

Once again they went to speak at the same time. Anders stopped and gestured to Fenris to let him go first.

“I…” Fenris took a breath to compose his thoughts. “I apologise, Anders. You left so abruptly this morning and I must have unintentionally done something to offend you-“

“Hang on,” Anders interrupted against his better judgement. “I wasn’t offended, you didn’t do anything.”

Fenris furrowed his brows in pure confusion.

“Then why...”

“I was embarrassed,” Anders explained, shuffling his feet awkwardly. “I like you Fenris, probably more than platonically. Andraste’s tits, it’s _definitely_ more than platonically. When I blurted out that I could kiss you I didn’t even realise I had said it until I saw your face and… I panicked?”

After the confession had left Anders’ mouth he didn’t sound particularly sure of himself. Anders’ heart was hammering in his chest at the realisation that he was potentially putting their friendship on the line by admitting his feelings. He couldn’t bring himself to look at the reaction that would be on Fenris’ face so he screwed his eyes tightly shut.

To say that Fenris was relieved would be an understatement. Fenris had been wondering for a while whether or not he was imaging the signals he had been getting from Anders. It was also a relief to hear that he hadn’t accidentally offended Anders.

“You could, you know,” Fenris said softly.

Anders slowly opened one eye to find that Fenris was looking up at him through his dark lashes.

“Pardon?” Anders asked just as softly.

“Kiss me,” Fenris clarified with a small smirk. “You _could_ kiss me.”

Unable to decide how to respond, Anders just blinked multiple times in quick succession. Fenris took this chance to speak again.

“Anders, you are one of the few people who has ever showed me this much kindness,” Fenris said, looking up at him. “You’re the first friend that I have _ever_ had and I care about you. Unsurprisingly I also find you very attractive. I apologise if I’m reading more into this than you intended but I… I have no experience with matters like this but I’m willing to try. If that is what you want, that is.”

As Fenris spoke, Anders watched as he fumbled more and more for his words. This really wasn’t how expected the day to turn out when he woke up this morning, but he also didn’t mind that this was how it was headed.

Thinking back to Karl, Anders realised just how short life is and that you really should make the most of the time you have with the ones that you care about.

“Really?” Anders asked his voice barely above a whisper.

Fenris took a step forward. Up this close, Fenris could see each individual freckle on Anders’ face; it was just as entrancing as the constellations.

Fenris grabbed the front of Anders’ purple apprentice robes and tugged him down towards him, crashing their lips together. Their noses bumped awkwardly and soon it became very clear to Fenris that he actually had no clue how to finish what he had started.

It wasn’t a particularly soft kiss nor was it well choreographed, Fenris had no practice and the last time Anders had kissed someone was quite a while ago. Regardless of experience, the warmth of the other’s mouth sent an almost electrifying feeling through their bodies.

Anders put his hands on either side of Fenris’ face to pull him closer. He never knew quite how soft Fenris’ skin was and he began to lightly and softly caress Fenris’ left cheek with his thumb.

Fenris’ fingers seemed to automatically drift up to the nape of Anders’ neck and tangle themselves in his long blond locks, losing himself in Anders. The blond tasted of fruit juice and cinnamon.

Anders felt the moment that Fenris began to hesitate and with a soppy smile threatening to take over his face, he slowly pulled back. He gently pushed their foreheads together and for that moment they just closed their eyes and listened to each other’s rapid breathing.

That was until they heard the very familiar heavy metal boots coming incredibly close, they must have been too distracted to hear the templar approaching. Glancing up at one another, they both took a few steps away from the other. Not taking their eyes off of each other, they tried to look as casual and non-suspicious as they could when the templar walked past, taking a short glimpse into their room before continuing on their way.

Anders was still trying to calm his breathing when the templar’s footsteps could no longer be heard.

“W-we should probably get to work on our plan,” He said tenderly.

Fenris licked his lip and laughed, it was such a genuine sounds that it made Anders’ smile grow.

“I suppose we should, shouldn’t we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh,,, okay this chapter has made me really nervous for some reason so I hope it's okay. Also, I'm going to be away for a few weeks so unfortunately unless I can pump out a chapter or two in the next few days that mean that there won't be any updates for a little bit.  
> (also this fic is now over 20k, making it the longest thing i've ever written wow)


	9. Chapter 9

“We need sheets,” Anders said, mentally going through his plan in his head.

Fenris bit his still slightly swollen lip and nodded as he listened. Momentarily, Anders was distracted and was incredibly tempted to return back to kissing them. However in the grand scheme of things, planning an escape from the Circle was probably more important at that current moment in time, but only just.

“I think I can see where this is going,” Fenris told him with a lopsided grin. “Just how many are we going to need though?”

“Lots. I think I should be able to get a few from the laundry room and if we use our own ones then that should be enough. Although it couldn’t hurt to get something else to add to them… maybe we can get some pillowcases or some old robes.”

Fenris nodded again.

“Won’t it be slightly suspicious if we both go to the laundry room?” He asked. “Besides, how are we supposed to hide the fact we’re taking sheets out rather than bringing laundry in?”

Anders smiled and tapped the side of his nose vaguely.

“That’s for me to figure out, Fen,” Anders said. “Now, while I do that, would you be able to get the rod of fire from Owain?”

There was a few seconds of awkward silence before the Fenris left the room in order to go and do his tasks. Considering the sudden change in their friendship – or could it be called a relationship now? – neither were certain as to how they needed to act now, if they even needed to change anything at all. As Fenris walked however, he couldn’t stop thinking about Anders’ mouth.

Anders stood and glanced around the room for a good few minutes. Tapping his chin with his finger, he tried to come up with an additional plan for getting the sheets. He didn’t think that anything in the chest would be useful; he also doubted that Fenris’ writing supplies would help much either. However as his eyes fell on Fenris’ pillow, he got an idea.

“G’morning,” Anders said cheerily to the templar that was standing watch outside of the laundry room.

The templar didn’t respond instead he just eyed Anders suspiciously. There weren’t any rules about templars and mages having conversations with one another but usually it was just something that wasn’t done.

Once inside of the room, Anders pulled the relatively clean pillowcase that he had taken from Fenris’ bed out from under his robes.

The laundry room was simple, mostly empty room with two large baskets and a tub. Anything that was dirty was put in one of the baskets and once they had been washed in the tub, they were placed in the other basket.

Being put in charge of the laundry room tended to be used as a punishment as it was boring and repetitive. Anders had had to do it once but wasn’t allowed to do it again after he ‘forgot’ to separate the mages’ robes from the apprentice’s robes and managed to turn everything a very attractive shade of brown that wasn’t too different from the Ferelden mud.

With his back to the door, Anders walked towards the clean basket. The basket was full of freshly washed bedding and even a few whole pillows.

“Perfect,” he whispered to himself.

Glancing momentarily over his shoulder, Anders felt relieved that the templar outside hadn’t turned around to watch what he was doing. However he needed to hurry or else the templar would check on him because no one spent an unnecessarily long time in the laundry room.

Grabbing some of the clean sheets, and even a few dirty ones so that the baskets still looked the same as they had before, he shoved them inside of Fenris’ pillowcase. He took a few moments to rearrange the sheets inside of the case before admiring his handy work. The previously empty case now looked as though it contained an old, lumpy pillow.

When Anders left, the templar grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. As Anders turned around to face the templar, he put on his best face of innocence.

“Is that your pillow?” The templar asked critically.

“Yes.”

Anders automatically began to hug the pillowcase of sheets a bit tighter. If the templar were to ask to look inside of the case or take it away, he would get caught. As the templar continued to look at Anders, he spoke again.

“I don’t remember you dropping off a pillow,” the templar said as though he would specifically remember Anders. Perhaps he would have, maybe Greagor handed out portraits of him telling them that they needed to look out for him. It wouldn’t surprise Anders if he had done exactly that.

“I asked another apprentice to take it,” Anders lied. “She was already headed there so I asked if she’d take mine too.”

For a moment Anders was sure that the templar didn’t believe him. But once again it seemed that luck was in Anders’ favour as the templar nodded, took his hand off of Anders’ shoulder, and sent him on his way.

With a growing smirk and a pillow full of laundry, Anders headed back to their room. Today would be a day of action, he could just feel it.

-

“Hello, Owain.” Fenris greeted the tranquil politely.

The store room was never particularly busy. Other than the few tranquil that worked there, the only other people that visited tended to be the odd mage looking for some kind of supply. No one ever stayed in the store room for long periods of time Fenris had noticed. He supposed that it had something to do with the unnerving way that the tranquil seemed to just stand around with a lifeless expression whenever they had finished their task and were awaiting their next one.

As uneasy as the tranquil made Fenris feel, he still made an effort to talk to them as often as possible. From what he heard about the rite of tranquillity from Anders and the others in the circle, the templars basically severed a mage’s connection to the fade, took away everything that made them _them_ , and made them into a slave. Their vacant and oddly sad eyes brought memories of Fenris’ life in Tevinter flooding back to him, the slaves he worked and lived with shared the same look.

Pushing aside his thoughts, Fenris returned his attention back to the task at hand.

“Hello,” Owain said, his expression and tone of voice blank. “Welcome to the stockroom. What can I help you with today?”

“Can I get a permission form for a rod of fire?” Fenris asked.

Owain gave a nod and turned to one of the crates behind him to collect a form.

“Oh, and some spare robes.”

Giving another nod, Owain moved to a crate at the back of the room. He rummaged through until he came to a robe in the smallest size the Circle provided. They should fit the small elf.

Owain placed the robe and permission slip in Fenris’ hands.

“For a rod of fire you need to have a senior enchanter sign the permission form, without a signature I cannot give you a rod of fire.”

Fenris waited for Owain to finish speaking before asking if it was possible for him to get some more robes.

Owain furrowed his eyebrows and glanced at the robes in Fenris’ hands and the one he was wearing.

“I do not understand,” He said. “Why do you require _more_ robes when you are already wearing some?”

Blinking, Fenris tried to make up a good excuse. Unlike Anders, his tongue and wit wasn’t exactly quick. However luck seemed to be on his side.

“I am particularly clumsy,” Fenris explained. as he held up his sleeve, showing the large ink stain that was still there.

For a moment Owain was silent, his eyes seemed to glaze as he mentally went over the list of excuses that the Templars had told him weren’t acceptable. There were a couple of sarcastic remarks that were on that list but the elf in front of him seemed sincere, plus he had evidence of his supposed clumsiness. The Templars wouldn’t object to Owain giving an uncoordinated elf a few extra robes.

Owain collected three more sets of robes before handing them to Fenris.

“Is that all you require?” Owain asked.

Fenris nodded his head. With the robes and the request form, he had everything he needed. With a quick thanks, Fenris headed back towards his and Anders’ dorm.

-

“Did you get the _thing?_ ” Anders asked as soon as Fenris came into the room.

Grinning, Anders sat on the bed with a large lumpy pillow on his lap. Confused, Fenris eyed the giant pillow.

“I have the request form, I was just going to fill it in,” Fenris explained, still looking at Anders’ lap. “Why do you have a pillow?”

Quickly glancing towards the door, Anders reached one of his hands into the pillow case and pulled out the corner of a slightly yellowed bedsheet.

“It’s how I got the sheets out of the laundry room,” Anders said, still grinning. “Although you might want to wash the case before you put it back on your pillow, I had to pick up a couple of dirty sheets too.”

“That’s disgusting.”

Anders rolled his eyes and laughed. It’s not as though Fenris would need to wash the case though since – if their plan worked out – they wouldn’t be sleeping in these beds for much longer.

“Do we have any more ink?” Fenris searched through his writing supplies and found that the ink pot he had been using the night before had been all used up.

“I think there’s some in the trunk.”

The blond continued to sit on Fenris’ bunk with the lumpy pillow case on top of his crossed legs and watched Fenris rummage through the large trunk. Old clothes, books, and various knick-knacks were pushed aside as the elf searched.

Once Fenris found the ink, he practiced Wynne’s signature on a spare sheet of paper a few more times before carefully writing it onto the gap on the request form. He really hoped that his forgery would be acceptable; they really couldn’t afford the Templars getting suspicious of them right now.

Gently blowing on the parchment, Fenris dried the ink before handing the page to Anders to inspect.

“I still can’t believe how good you are at this,” Anders said in amazement. “You could make a fortune in Denerim forging papers you know.”

A pink tint began to rise on the elf’s cheeks at the compliment. He still wasn’t use to receiving such sincere praise.

Anders fought back a smile as he handed the papers back to Fenris.

“Now, you go get that rod,” He told Fenris. “I’ll wait here and then we can get started on the next stage of our plan.”

As soon as Fenris had left, Anders once again checked the corridor. There hadn’t been a Templar checking in on them for quite some time so they were due for someone looking into their room sometime soon. With that fact in mind, Anders was reluctant to start pulling sheets from the case just yet.

He didn’t have to wait long as soon enough the tinny sounds of clanking began to fill the room. Anders continued sitting and staring at the doorway and so when the Templar turned up, which seemed to be Cullen this time, there was a moment of confusion.

“Anders?” Cullen asked slowly. “What are you doing?”

The way that Anders had been sitting and expecting him had caught him off guard, that along with the fact that Anders always seemed to up to something didn’t help his unease.

“I’ve decided to accept my fate as a house maid, so I’m fluffing the pillows,” Anders replied with a soft smirk as he gently prodded the pillow in his lap. “The pillows here are just far too hard for my liking.”

Cullen continued to stare at Anders. The blond was definitely up to something, he had the same glint in his eye that he had seen just before Cullen had found powered rashvine in his gauntlets. However there was nothing suspicious about Anders fluffing pillows because really, the pillows the Circle provided _were_ terrible.

Quenching his paranoid thoughts, Cullen just sighed and walked off. Maybe he should mention Anders’ odd attitude to the Knight-Commander?

“What did Cullen want?” asked Fenris. He had just passed the young templar in the corridor and the man had a look of confusion and annoyance that most templars wore after having a conversation with Anders.

Standing up, Anders turned his back to the door and began to pull out the sheets from the pillow case one at a time. He was amazed at just how many sheets he had managed to cram into such a small case.

“He was just checking in to make sure that we’re not doing what we’re doing,” he explained. “So did you get it?”

Fenris smiled and placed a thin rod covered in a thick waxy cloth onto the growing pile of fabric on the bed. Anders’ eyes widened and a huge grin broke out on his face at the sight.

“We’re going to make it Fenris,” he said softly. “We’re actually going to make it.”

Anders didn’t think of himself as a pessimist but he knew that getting the rod of fire would be the hardest part of their plan for many reasons. But now that they had everything they needed, they were basically ready. Well maybe it would be a good idea to get some supplies like food before they left.

“What now?”

Beckoning Fenris closer, Anders grabbed two of the sheets and tied them together with a double knot to create a long rope.

“We just need to tie everything together,” Anders explained. “Those spare robes will help too.”

Slowly, a puzzle began to piece together in Fenris’ head and he finally understood just what Anders plan was.

“Will it definitely reach?” Fenris questioned.

Anders thought for a moment before nodding.

“I think so.”

Fenris doubted that he would get a better answer since they would just have to wait and see.

While Anders tied the sheets together, Fenris tied the spare robes to one another. Out of the corner of his eye, Fenris watched as Anders’ fingers moved quickly to make the knots. It seemed as though Anders had done this before and Fenris couldn’t help wondering just _how_ Anders had escaped all of those other times.

Before long the dinner bell rang out and the pair had to scramble to shove their long fabric rope back into Fenris’ pillow case. Unlike when it was filled with just plain sheets, now that everything was all knotted together it was really easy to tell that it wasn’t actually a pillow. In an attempt to disguise it better, Anders switched his own pillow with Fenris’ so that the lumpy pillow was up on the top bunk and therefore out of immediate view.

At dinner, Fenris felt awkward. Penny and Anders were deep in their usual gossipy conversation but part of Fenris couldn’t bring himself to join in. Penny was their friend and Anders hadn’t told him whether or not she was in on their plan. He hoped that she was since Fenris had few friends and it would hurt to leave her behind without saying goodbye. Then again, maybe it was better that she didn’t know. The more people that know about the plan then the more likely it is that they’ll get caught.

“Fenris?” Anders’ soft voice broke him from his thoughts and the elf looked towards his friends, realising that he had just been staring off into space.

“Are you okay?” Penny looked at him with big concerned eyes.

Once again, despite how much he was looking forward to the feeling of fresh air and sunlight, Fenris felt guilty about their plans. Maybe there was a way to bring Penny along?

Now even Anders looked worried.

Taking a bite of the partially stale roll, Fenris nodded. Reluctantly, Penny and Anders tried to continue with a conversation.

“Did you two work out whatever was bothering you this morning?” Penny asked curiously.

As the memory of Anders’ lips came back to Fenris, he began to choke on the bread. Anders gently patted him on the back and the coughs soon eased away.

“I’ll take that as a yes then.” Penny had a small knowing smile on her face as she watched the pair fumble and fluster. “Oh and Fenris, I’ve had more time than I originally thought I would to work on your robes so they should be ready within the next few days. Speaking of robes, did you see Myla set hers on fire in library earlier?”

The remainder of dinner was once again spent gossiping and talking. All the while, Anders was discretely tearing off large chunks of bread and placing them on a thin piece of cloth he had put on his lap.

“This bread should do until we can come across a farm or something,” Anders said once they were back in their room.

The cloth parcel full of bread chunks had been wrapped up and placed inside a slightly larger cloth satchel that Anders had dug up from the depths of the trunk.

“Shouldn’t we wait until the lights are out before we start anything?” Fenris asked as he watched Anders shove a small embroidered pillow into the satchel.

Anders shrugged and slung the satchel strap over his shoulder.

“If we go now then we’ll have to be quicker, but we also don’t have to be completely silent since there’s a lot of background noise at the moment to stop people overhearing what we’re doing.”

Fenris supposed that that made sense, however he was still convinced that it would be safer if it was darker. But he wasn’t going to argue since Anders knew more about the workings of the Circle and the tower than Fenris could ever hope to know. The only person who probably knew more about the inner workings of the Circle than Anders was Penny.

Unlike Anders, Fenris didn’t have any personal belongings so when Anders asked if there was anything he wanted to put in the satchel, he just shook his head.

Excitement began to bubble up in Anders’ chest, something about the thought of escape made him feel so good. He was impatient, he couldn’t wait any longer; they had to get this plan started as soon as possible.

“Fen, can you stand guard?” Anders reached over to the cloth covered rod and began to unwrap it. Instantly he could feel the heat of the magical item warming his hand. “I doubt there will be many apprentices about since most people tend to head straight back to their rooms after dinner but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Moving towards the doorway, Fenris peered up and down the corridor. Just as Anders had said, there was no one around. However the sounds of conversations meant that there were people in all of the rooms on this floor.

Behind Fenris, Anders held the rod of fire, using the waxy fabric to protect his hand. His hand shook as he walked up to the small barred window and began to use the rod to cut through the bars. The rod cut through the thick metal bars as though it was butter. Why Anders hadn’t thought of this plan before was beyond him.

One by one he removed the bars from the window, placing them onto Fenris’ bunk. Once all that remained in the window was the glass, Anders reached up to his own bunk to pull down their fabric rope.

“Is it still all clear out there?” Anders whispered as he began to tie one end of the rope to the end of the bunk bed frame.

Fenris popped his head out of the room and scanned the hall. There was an apprentice walking around but she was headed in the opposite direction to their room so it wasn’t worth reporting back to Anders.

“All clear,” he whispered back.

Giving a nod, Anders began to cut through the glass frame, the only thing left stopping them from getting out.

“Can’t you hurry up?” Fenris hissed, the longer he stood in the doorway, the worse his nerves were getting.

“I’m going as fast as I-.”

As Anders replied, he pulled his attention away from the delicate glass for just long enough that his fingers slipped. The glass panel, rather than falling forward towards him as he had planned so that he could quietly catch it, fell backwards. The blond watched with wide eyes as the glass shattered loudly onto the hard dirt below.

Fenris whipped his head around and stared incredulously at Anders. If they heard that glass smash from all the way up here then they probably weren’t the only ones.

“We need to go.”

Nodding in agreement, Anders threw the long rope out of the window and was relieved when he saw that the rope ended only a little way above the ground. They could probably jump down the final distance without any major injury.

Anders pulled himself through the empty window frame, holding on tightly to the sheets. For a moment he was scared that the knots weren’t going to hold, but they did. Shimmying a little way down the rope so that his whole body was outside of the tower, he popped his head back through the window.

“Fen,” He hissed. “Come on!”

Gesturing for Anders to move down the rope and make room, Fenris began to clamber through the frame. His sweaty palms slipped on the sheets and as he steadied himself on the stone window frame, he cut his hand on some of the broken glass. Blood began to trickle down his arm.

The pair continued to shimmy their way down the sheets as best as they could. Anders tried his best to stay focused on their task and to stay vigilant but the scents and sights of the outside world were just so distracting.

They were nearly halfway down when Fenris’ elven hearing picked up a familiar sound. The pain in his hand was instantly forgotten as his heart began to pound.

“Anders we need to go.” Fenris tried to get Anders attention but it was hard to without talking over a whisper, but anything too loud would attract the unwanted attention of the templar he knew was on their way around their floor. “ _Now.”_

Unfortunately, Anders didn’t hear Fenris and since the human didn’t speed up, it meant that Fenris couldn’t speed up either. However what he did hear was something that everyone else in the tower and even the surrounding area of lake Calenhad would have heard.

“STAY EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE, MAGES!”

Looking up, Fenris could see two templars leaning out of their window, one of which was Cullen. The young templar seemed to be looking at the pair with a mix of disbelief and anger. Cullen was probably mentally kicking himself that he didn’t catch wind of their plan when he inspected their room earlier.

From below Fenris, Anders looked down. He had hoped that they would have been able to have just slid down the rope as quickly as possible as run off before the templars came. However, instead of seeing dead grass and mud, Anders saw the faces of three very angry looking templars.

“Shit.”

They must have been alerted by the sound of the shattering glass. Anders closed his eyes and prayed for the blessed Andraste to just kill him there and then. This was his fault. He got excited and that meant he got sloppy. He really had thought that this escape would have been the one though.

“Fen, I’m so sorry.”

Irving was going to kill them. Well, that’s if Greagoir didn’t get there first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry that this chapter is so late, some things happened and it may be a while before i get back to a proper schedule for posting. Don't think that that means this won't get finished because it will, I literally have the whole thing planned out so yeah!! Also this chapter was supposed to be two smaller chapters but since I made you guys wait so long for an update I decided to just cram them both into one so I hope it's okay.


	10. Chapter 10

 Greagoir was beyond pissed. Fenris’ heart was racing and his blood was rushing so rapidly that he could barely make out what the knight-commander was yelling at him and Anders. In that moment Fenris felt like he was back in Tevinter as a young child being yelled at by Danarius for taking a slice of bread from the kitchen, the only difference was that Greagoir had yet to physically harm him. Although judging from the fury he was expressing, Fenris was beginning to think that it wouldn’t be long before there would be come kind of punishment. 

“I cannot believe you two had the _gall_ to attempt what you did,” Greagoir continued. As he yelled spittle was flung across the desk that separated Fenris and Anders from Greagoir and Irving. “I knew putting the two of you together was a terrible idea. Anders you’ve been nothing but trouble since you came here! You’ve done nothing but push the boundaries and this has been the final straw, no more chances! Maker help me, I’ll make sure you get the Rite if it’s the last thing I do!” 

Fenris heard a quiet, yet sharp intake of breath from the previously silent blond beside him. Through the entire conversation - if you could even call a one-sided yelling match a conversation - Anders had said nothing. He hadn’t even moved since they had been taken to the office.

Despite being too scared to look away from Greagoir for fear of getting into anymore trouble, Fenris spared a quick second long glance to his companion. Never before had Fenris seen Anders so terrified.

The blond was sitting ramrod straight. His brown eyes were wide and as Greagoir’s threats began to sink in, they began to fill with tears that soon started to slip down his freckled cheeks. He opened his mouth slowly as if to reply or retaliate but all that came out was an almost inaudible choking noise. Anders was in total shock.

Irving hadn’t contributed yet, choosing to just sit and look at the pair with a gaze akin to a disappointed father.

“Greagoir,” Irving began calmly, instantly gaining the attention of everyone in the room. “Surely the punishment does not need to be so severe? Neither of them actually left the tower, and this is Fenris’ first offence.” 

Red with rage, Greagoir was not ready to listen to the older mage.

“First offence or not, property was damaged and an escape attempt was made. The entire principle of the circle had been damaged by these two miscreants. Once other mages find out about what had happened tonight and how this attempt went on without our knowledge, other attempts _will_ be made. You may not care about the sanctity of the circle, but I will not stand for this sort of behaviour!”

After that the two men ignored the teenagers, choosing instead to try and convince the other of the best way to approach the situation. For what seemed like hours, Fenris and Anders sat in silence as Irving and Greagoir argued between themselves over what punishment would be suitable for such a terrible crime. Greagoir had been set on giving both Fenris and Anders the same punishment, however Irving was trying to - at the very least - get Fenris a lighter punishment. 

Eventually they reached a conclusion. Greagoir rubbed his throbbing temples while Irving turned his attention to Fenris. 

“As this is the first time you’ve broken any of the circle rules, your punishment will not be as severe. However you will not go unpunished as you _had_ knowingly taken part in something that is very clearly not accepted,” Irving said, his voice eerily calm. “As you will not be allowed back into your room until the window can be replaced and fixed, I shall sort out a replacement room. Until then you are to stay in the library under constant Templar observation.”

“What is my punishment?” Fenris asked quietly, not looking forward to the response. 

“At the moment it is undecided, Greagoir and I will need to have another discussion about it,” Irving explained. “Now, please return to the library so we may talk with Anders.” 

Fenris didn’t want to leave. He could already tell by the looks on Irving and Greagoir’s faces that whatever punishment Anders would be facing would be incredibly harsh. As he slowly rose, legs shaking from a mix of fear and adrenaline, Fenris looked over at Anders once more. 

As though Anders could read Fenris’ mind, the blond forced a small smile onto his face in attempt to quash Fenris’ worries. 

“It’s going to be okay Fen,” Anders mouthed.

It was obvious that Anders didn’t believe what he was mouthing, his eyes just held too much pain. Fenris didn’t believe it either, but he wanted to. Fenris really did want to believe it was all going to be okay. 

The room was silent as Fenris left. It wasn’t until Fenris had shut the office door that the conversation within the room continued. Despite having sensitive ears, Fenris struggled to hear what was being said through the heavy wooden door.

The situation was quickly sinking in and as Fenris moved through the dark corridors, his mind was full of nothing but guilt. He froze in the corridor when it dawned on him that the whole situation was _his fault._ Had he have not asked Anders to help him, Anders wouldn’t currently be sitting in front of Greagoir and Irving facing unimaginable punishments.

“Get a move on, mage.”

Jumping, Fenris glanced back over his shoulder to find a rather pissed off looking templar. The templar probably had been following him since he left Irving’s office in order to make sure he didn’t try and make another escape attempt. 

Immediately, Fenris turned back around and headed towards the library. The lights had gone out ages ago and the remainder of the mages in the circle were already fast asleep. Normally Fenris preferred the quiet but now, with only templars for company, Fenris wished that where were other people around. 

Fenris was guided towards one of the tables closest to the door. When he sat down, the templar who had been escorting him stayed nearby. At first Fenris just sat there thinking that it wouldn’t be long before he was placed in a new room. But as the night drew on, he had yet to be given a room. Fenris grew nervous, if he hadn’t been spoken to yet that could only mean that Anders was still in Irving’s office. 

Alone with his thoughts in the cold, dimly lit library, eventually Fenris drifted off to sleep at the desk he was sat at. Like anyone sleeping on a hard desk, Fenris didn’t sleep well. Every sound woke him up. Every sound of metal armour clanging, or bookcases creaking woke him up. Each time he woke he hoped it would be Anders. 

Around dawn Fenris was woken by a rough hand shaking him awake. Eyes wide, he shot up. 

“Come with me.” A burly templar demanded as he towered over Fenris. 

Despite his limbs being slow due to just waking up, Fenris followed the templar immediately. His neck and back ached after being hunched over the desk for so long and he tried to ease the pain by stretching as they walked. 

The corridors were still silent and only partially lit, telling Fenris that it was still night. He glanced around, hoping that he’d see Anders somewhere but he didn’t. Fenris was so tempted to ask the templar about the human, but he held his tongue. 

After a short walk, the templar stopped outside of a room that wasn’t too far from Fenris and Anders’ original room. However the first thing Fenris noticed when he walked in was that rather than a bunk bed in the room, there was just a lone single bed. After being ordered by the templar to go to bed, Fenris laid down on the lumpy mattress and stared at the ceiling. It didn’t feel right to be laying in bed without having Anders in the bunk above. 

The templar stayed at the door for the remainder of the night, occasionally he would stomp into the room which would wake Fenris up. After the third time, Fenris began to wonder whether the templar was doing it purely to keep him from sleeping. 

By morning, Fenris’ head hurt along with his neck and back. The templar at the door was been replaced sometime during the night by someone more familiar to the elf, Cullen.

“Fenris,” Cullen said in a way of greeting when he realised that Fenris was awake. 

Although Cullen was a templar, Fenris was less intimidated by him than the other templars. This could be due to the fact that their ages were similar, but it was probably more due to the information Penny had told Fenris and Anders about Cullen. Information that mainly involved Cullen becoming a stuttering, blushing mess every time that someone said anything somewhat flirtatious towards him. Also, people do tend to become less intimidating once you see them rushing to get out of their armour and then standing in their small clothes because Anders had once again put rashvine in the templar armour.

“Cullen,” Fenris greeted in return. “Have you heard anything about Anders?”

Immediately after the words left his lips, Fenris saw Cullen’s shoulders tense. Yet, Fenris got no reply.

“Cullen?” Fenris prompted.

Again, Fenris got no reply. That wasn’t good. It really wasn’t good. Fenris was about to ask again when Greagoir himself appeared in the doorway. The older templar looked as though he had not gotten any sleep, which was highly likely to be true. Greagoir most likely had to spend the entire night trying to sort out the situation that Fenris and Anders had caused. 

With no words, Greagoir beckoned Fenris to follow him. Still wearing the robes he had been wearing yesterday, Fenris got up and was quick on his heels. 

As they headed in the direction of the dining hall, Fenris watched as other mages woke and also began to walk to breakfast. Some of the mages noticed that Fenris was walking with a templar, and not just any templar, Greagoir himself. Immediately whispers began to spread through the dorms. Fenris sighed, he was going to be hearing a lot of gossip today and probably would have to hear many obscure reasons about why Greagoir was with Fenris. 

“Irving and I have come to the conclusion that you shall be on constant observation for next few days,” Greagoir said sternly, yet quietly to prevent any unwanted ears hearing the conversation. “I don’t believe that the punishment is harsh enough but Irving insists that you were merely urged into the situation by Anders and would not have done it on your own accord.” 

Fenris frowned and as they walked into the dining hall, Greagoir guided Fenris towards an empty table in the corner of the room. As a punishment it wasn’t bad, honestly Fenris was expecting worse. But the way that Greagoir spoke about Anders as though he was some kind of evil mastermind really rubbed him the wrong way.

On the other side of the room Fenris spotted Penny, her mouth was agape and she was obviously shocked. He watched as Penny looked around the room, probably trying to find their blond friend, before looking back at Fenris. Answering her unspoken question, Fenris sadly shrugged, he had no idea where Anders was. 

“Eat,” Greagoir demanded, snapping Fenris’ attention away from Penny.

Like normal, the porridge is thick and tasteless. Forcing the meal down, Fenris feet numb. He wanted to ask Greagoir where Anders was since Cullen’s reaction that morning hadn’t implied anything good, but the knight-commander had moved away. Greagoir was still close enough to watch Fenris’ movements just not close enough for Fenris to talk to him. 

As more and more people arrived for breakfast, the hall began to fill up. However despite more people turning up, no one sat near Fenris. Fenris felt as though he was back in his first days of being in the Circle. He once again met Penny’s gaze across the hall and he could see that she was eager to come and talk to him and to check that he was okay. But as she went to stand up and go to sit with him, Fenris shook his head. The last thing he wanted was to get Penny involved in this mess. 

With a sigh, Fenris plopped the spoonful of porridge back into the bowl and stood. Greagoir was quick to follow him as Fenris walked back to his new room, ready to spend the day laying in bed with only a templar at the door for company.

 

\--

 

Anders groaned. He knew the Circle’s beds were bad but he didn’t remember them being this hard or _cold._ Turning onto his back, Anders opened his eyes slowly. When he saw grey stone rather than the barred window that usually greets him in the morning, everything that had happened came flooding back. 

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck,” Anders hissed under his breath as he got up. 

He rose too quickly and his head swam. Trying to steady himself, he took a few steps back and leant against the wall. 

Anders had never been a fan of small spaces, and now his heart was racing. The room he was in was half of the size of the room he had been previously been sharing with Fenris. Everything was grey, there was no colour and barely any light. What Anders assumed had been a window in the wall, had been boarded up. The only light coming into the room was through the small window in the big stone door. Immediately Anders knew he was in solitary, nowhere else in the tower was this unpleasant. 

With no way to see the sky, Anders had no way of telling what the time was. But even if he could tell what time of day it was, he still wouldn’t know how long he had been locked up. 

Anders sighed and slid down the wall, back onto the freezing floor.

Knowing Irving though, he wouldn’t be locked up for too long. Anders knew that by getting caught he had screwed up, but for whatever reason Irving had a soft spot for him so hopefully Anders would only have to say in solitary for a day or two. It wouldn’t be nice and it certainly wouldn’t be comfortable for the claustrophobic mage but he would be able to survive a couple of days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so so sorry for not updating for so long. Lots of things happened, mainly I started at a new school and had to spend some time catching up, and also my anxiety has been really bad so I've just not been up to posting anything unfortunately. After not writing for so long I'm so scared that this chapter isn't going to be as good as the others (which is why it's a bit shorter). Hopefully there aren't too many plot holes or OOC moments but if there are I'm so sorry. Ugh I know I shouldn't have left so long between updates but I really couldn't help it. I just hope this chapter is okay and I'm going to try my hardest to get the another chapter up soon. I don't know exactly how many more chapters are left but we are nearing the end!! I'm tempted to do a sequel after this but that all depends on whether anyone would be interested in it and whether I have the time. 
> 
> TL;DR: I hope this chapter was okay, sorry I've been gone. Hope y'all have/have had a good day!


	11. Chapter 11

The first full day since Fenris and Anders’ escape attempt day without any new information on Anders. A day turned into two days, which turned into a week. Then that week turned into three weeks and still no one knew where the blond mage had gone. 

At the beginning some rumours went round that Anders had left the circle again, however where he had supposedly ended up changed every time Fenris heard it. Anders must have had a reputation within the Circle that the elf was unaware about because every location mentioned seemed to be a brothel. However, since Circle life revolves around the rumour mill, Anders was quickly forgotten about by other members of the Circle as stories about some girl called Lia being caught writing raunchy stories during one of her lessons were apparently more interesting. Even though the majority of the Circle seemed to forget about the blond, it was obvious to Penelope Amell that one mage was not going to forget about him as easily.

Every day since Anders had vanished, Fenris had become more and more resigned. Penny could not imagine what Fenris was going through, although neither told her, Penny wasn’t blind to the romantic feelings that had been developing between the pair. Fenris still sat with her at meals but the main portion of his time was spent in his new room just staring at the ceiling. Part of Penny wanted to ask what is was that got Fenris and Anders in trouble, but there never seemed to be a good time to ask. 

The way that Fenris would just walk around and spend his time as though he wasn’t really there reminded Penny of how Anders had been when Karl was transferred to a different Circle. Penny was never particularly religious, but she prayed to whoever may be out there that Anders hadn’t been transferred and that he would soon return. 

“Fenris, I finished your robes,” Penny said softly as she walked into his room one afternoon.

Fenris turned his head from where he was looking at the ceiling, and give her a small half-smile. 

Penny placed the robes on the end of Fenris’ bed before waving her hand in a shooing motion, signalling him to make some space. Silently sitting up, Fenris moved over and allowed Penny to take a seat next to him.

“Fen-”

“No.”

Penny didn’t take it personally that Fenris was blocking her out, he was hurting. Anders did the same thing when he was upset. So she just did exactly what she did when Anders got like that, which was just sit and wait.

“I-I apologise,” Fenris said shortly after, his shoulders slumping. “Thank you for the robes, and for everything you have done. I am just not at my best currently.”

With a sad smile, Penny put her arm around Fenris’ shoulder and gave him a one armed hug. The way he flinched at the contact initially made her heart ache. 

The two friends sat like that in a more comfortable silence until said silence was broken by the routine clanging of templar boots. Standing, Penny sighed over dramatically which got a chuckle out of the elf.

“Well that’s my cue to go sadly,” she said sighing again. “I’ll see you at dinner, Fenris.”

Fenris nodded and waited an appropriate time after the templar who had been doing the rounds had passed before changing into the robes Penny had left behind. He couldn’t stop a smile tugging at his lips. Although still scratchy, at least his robes no longer swamped him and he didn’t have to keep rolling up his sleeves. Anders used to tease him that with his sleeves rolled up he looked like a younger brother in his elder sibling's hand-me-downs. 

As Penny walked back to her room, ready to get started on her latest sewing project, she passed two whispering templars. Slowing her pace, she tried her best to listen into their conversation. She couldn’t catch everything but in the short time she had to overhear them she managed to catch two words that made her almost trip and blow her cover. 

“ -blond-” one of the templars whispered to the other.

“-solita-” she heard the other say, however she couldn’t catch the whole word.

Solitary. Surely the last word was solitary. Eyes wide, and mind racing Penny continued round the circular corridor, passing her room and heading back towards Fenris’ room. Her sewing could wait.

“Penny?” Fenris asked confused. “Did you not just leave?”

She waved away his question and sat back next to Fenris on the bed, exactly as they had been sitting before she left only a few minutes previously. 

“I think I know where Anders is,” Penny whispered.

Many emotions flashed over Fenris’ face before he settled on one of caution. He hoped Anders was okay and safe but he could very likely be wrong.

“Where is he?” 

“Solitary.”

Fenris’ heart stopped. All this time, Anders had been alone a cold dank room. Fenris hated being in the solitary room he had been placed in when he first arrived, Maker only knows what he would have done had he have been made to say any longer in there.

“Kaffas!” Fenris hissed angrily.

Penny raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know what that means but it sounds angry so I agree. I want you to know though that I can’t be certain that it’s him, but I did hear the words ‘blond’ and what i’m assuming was ‘solitary’. I can’t imagine there would be anyone but Anders who would managed to get into enough trouble to end up in solitary, but there is always a chance that they weren’t talking about him.”

“It’s him,” Fenris said. “It has to be him.”

Fenris wanted nothing more for the void to just swallow him up. Ever since Anders’ disappearance his guilt had nearly consumed him. Although without the blond’s help, any escape attempt Fenris made would have had an even lower chance of success, Fenris began to regret getting Anders involved. Anders’ didn’t deserve being stuck in solitary for helping. If anything, Fenris believed that as the one who initiated the plot, that he himself should have had the worse punishment.

“Fenris…” Penny began slowly, “What did you two do?”

With a sigh Fenris started at the beginning. He explained how he had asked Anders about his escapes, and how Fenris wanted nothing more than to be a free man for the first time in his life. As Fenris continued on, Penny nodded and took in everything in polite silence. 

If Penny were to be honest, she was rather impressed at how thorough they were with their plan. The fact that they had managed to forge Wynne’s signature to get the rod of fire from Owain was  _ genius.  _ However from the sad and tired expression on her friend’s face, she stopped herself from saying so.

“Greagoir ordered that I have constant templar observation as punishment,” explained Fenris. “Which is why there were templars outside of my room for the past few weeks. Anders… Anders got put in solitary, if what you heard was correct. I have not managed to get any answers from Greagoir or Irving about Anders so I doubt he will be released any time soon.”

For a moment the small human was deep in thought. She hated the fact that Anders was currently locked alone in a tiny room, and she hated even more the sadness and defeat that was evident on Fenris’ face.

Leaning in close so that should anyone walk past no one would be able to overhear them, Penny whispered into Fenris’ ear.

“We could always try and get him out.”

Fenris blinked, unsure of whether he had just misheard her or not.

“But how?” 

They wouldn’t be able to get Anders out of solitary without trying to get him out of the Circle at the same time. There was going to be an awful lot of planning required because this was going to be even harder than their first attempt. Should they get caught this time around Irving wouldn’t be able to protect any of them from Greagoir’s wrath. But with the right planning, and the right timing it could be possible.

With a growing smile, Penny said, “Well that’s just what we have to figure out Fenris.”

 

\---

 

Anders had no idea how long he had been in solitary. The days had all began to morph into each other. With only nothing to do but sleep, Anders spent a majority of his time curled up on the hard floor.

At the beginning Anders had been relatively relaxed, that was until it became evident that he wasn’t being let out from solitary any time soon. Now he was stressed and rather scared. He would wake up in a panic with the feeling that the walls were closing in on him. For a while he had screamed and yelled, banging at the door for someone to come and help him. But all that got him was bloody hands from hitting the stone walls and door.

Every once in awhile a templar would come and provide him with food. The food wasn’t anything fancy, just cold lumpy porridge that probably had been left over from breakfast. Anders knew instantly that it was laced with magebane and was reluctant to eat it because he would rather not feel sluggish and constantly nauseated. But after not eating a couple of meals, the templars began to threaten Anders with the possibility of being force fed. Being too weak to put up an argument, Anders backed down and reluctantly ate every meal he was provided from then on. 

The door swung open as if on cue and another bowl of porridge was placed roughly on the floor, it’s contents partially spilling onto the tile. As Anders went to say something, hoping for any kind of human contact or conversation, the templar who had put the bowl down slammed the door shut. The clank of the door being locked shut made him wince.

Shuffling towards the bowl, Anders looked for a spoon only to find that once again there wasn’t one. With one hand holding his nose, Anders brought the bowl to his lips with his other and tried to eat it as quickly as possible. Anders realised very early on that it was easier to keep down if he just chugged it rather than taking tiny sips since it meant he didn’t have to taste it as much.

As the magebane started to take effect, Anders felt his connection to the fade being to dwindle. With a sigh, he placed the empty wooden bowl by the door and moved back to where he had been laying previously. Slowly he began to drift off to sleep again, the last thoughts on his mind being that he hoped Fenris hadn’t been given a similar punishment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short chapter but really I just want to pump out the rest of this story as soon as I can since I have exams coming up which will mean that if I don't finish this fic before then, I'll probably have to take another break for a while which would suck considering there'll probably only be hmmm maybe 2 or 3 more chapters left i think? Anyway, I hope this was okay and thank you all for reading this far!


	12. Chapter 12

Penny and Fenris sat beside one another in the library. The afternoons were always the busiest and loudest time for the library, which made it the perfect place for the pair to have a hushed conversation without anyone overhearing them. Any incriminating topics of conversation would be easily covered up by the sound of young magelings accidentally freezing themselves or electrocuting others with stray lightning bolts.

“I do not understand why we could not have just spoken in my room,” Fenris whispered, keeping his eyes on the book in front of him as Penny had instructed him earlier to.

Similarly, Penny had a large tome open on the table. With one hand on the page, her other hand was writing fake notes about the text. Luckily her handwriting was so bad that should anyone look over her shoulder, no one would be able to tell that what she was writing was pure nonsense. 

“Because,” she whispered in reply, “if I keep coming to your room the templars are going to think that we’re up to something.”

Fenris paused.

“...But we are up to something.”

Turning the page, Penny sighed. 

“Yes but we don’t want them to catch on do we?” She said. “Now, regardless of how well planned your method may have been, you missed out a rather large factor.”

“And that would be?” 

Penny resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Instead, she scribbled some more ‘notes’ on her page.

“Your phylacteries.”

To keep up appearances, Fenris turned the page of his book. He couldn’t remember anything about a  _ phylactery. _ To be fair, he wasn’t even sure what the word meant.

“What is a phylactery?” He asked.

These  _ phylacteries  _ sounded important and if that was the case, Fenris felt rather stupid that he didn’t know what they were. However, he decided that asking and risking looking ignorant for a second was worth actually learning something vital.

Penny raised her eyebrows and glanced over at him in confusion. 

“Did they not take your blood when you first came here?” She asked and Fenris shook his head lightly.

She had never met anyone that didn’t know what a phylactery was. It was pretty hard to forget being held down by templars while they sliced into you in order to collect your blood.

“I was unconscious when I was brought to the tower,” Fenris explained, grimacing at the unpleasant memories of the day he was caught.

Perhaps they had taken his blood while he was asleep, Penny thought, it wasn’t uncommon for templars to knock out particularly trying mages so they could collect enough blood for a phylactery. Although he must have been incredibly deep in the fade to have not woken up during it.

“A phylactery,” Penny began, “is a vial of blood that the templars can use to track your location. It’s the reason that Anders has never been outside Kinloch’s walls for more than a few months. Every time he leaves the tower’s confines, they just locate him with his phylactery and he’s usually caught within a week or so.”

Fenris tensed. Just blood on it’s own didn’t tend to give you the location of the person whose blood it was. Which meant only one thing, the templars used  _ blood magic _ . It was the only viable explanation. The double-standard that templars held was disgusting, Fenris thought. Mages would be locked up just for the slight chance that they  _ may  _ begin to use blood magic and they then spend their whole lives being punished just for a small possibility that something  _ may _ happen, while templars apparently use blood magic often but just because they’re templars it is accepted. 

“If you knew about this then why have you yet to tell Anders about it?” Fenris asked.

“I’ve known about the what the phylacteries are used for for a while - I found a small section on them in a book I was reading once - but it wasn’t until recently that I discovered  _ where _ they were being held,” said Penny, adding some more fake-notes to her vellum. “There was little point in telling him about it of there was nothing we could do, though perhaps if I had then he wouldn’t have attempted escaping as much as he had and wouldn’t be…”

Penny gave a sad sigh before shaking her head, now was not the time. 

“Anyway, if we can destroy the phylacteries then there’s a significantly lower chance of the two of you being caught.”

“Two? Are you not going to come with us?” Fenris’ shock made him raise his voice. 

The templar on the opposite side of the room, glanced over at the noise. To him, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, just two apprentices studying.

This whole time Fenris had assumed that Penny would be leaving with him and Anders. He had never explicitly asked her, but he didn’t think that after all of her help she would want to stay behind and most likely have to experience the templars’ harsh interrogation methods. Once Anders and Fenris escape - they would, they had to - then Penny would obviously be the first person that the templars would question about how the pair escaped and where they had gone.

Penny save him a quick soft smile.

“No, it’s not my time to go yet,” She said vaguely. “Besides, the more people that are with you, the slower you will be and it will be more likely that a templar will find you.”

Fenris was about to object and voice his concerns but Penny shut her book with a heavy thud. She stood up and looked at Fenris, indicating that he should do the same.

“Shall we go and get started then?” 

Following suit, Fenris closed his book. The pair quickly returned them to their designated placed on the bookshelves before leaving the library.

“Where are we headed?” Fenris asked.

“We need to get another rod of fire,” said Penny.

Fenris grabbed Penny’s sleeve and pulled her to the side of the corridor. 

“I cannot be seen with a rod of fire,” Fenris said, “if the templars catch wind of me even attempting to get a rod of fire they will assume the worst!”

Considering that Fenris and Anders’ escape was still relatively fresh in the minds of most templars in the tower, Fenris doubted that he would even be able to enter the storeroom without a templar questioning him. That meant that Penny would have to do a majority of the work herself while Fenris played lookout. He felt guilty at this realisation, he would much rather work for his own freedom than someone else do it and risk serious punishment just for him. Unfortunately, he could see no other way that they could help Anders.

“I hadn’t thought of that…” Penny admitted. “Well, it’s a good thing that I know exactly who to get a rod of fire form from that won’t ask too many questions.”

Beconning Fenris to follow her, Penny turned on her heel and walked back into the library. In a secluded, dark corner stood an elderly mage who was scanning the books with little interest. The man’s mind was clearly elsewhere.

“Senior enchanter Sweeney,” Penny called out, gaining the attention of the man. “Do you have a moment?”

Fenris pretended to be searching for a particular title while Penny charmed the enchanter into allowing her to get a rod of fire.

He saw the man chuckle at whatever Penny had said and then pat his robe, trying to find something.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t appear to have a form on me,” enchanter Sweeney said. “I don’t suppose that I could just write a note to Owain to say that I’ve given you permission? Yes, I’m certain that that would do.”

Senior enchanter Sweeney pulled some vellum from his pocket and began to write a short message to Owain. Penny was just thankful that Sweeney had believed her when she said that Owain had run out of request forms, the less running around that she and Fenris had to do the better. Really, they had to get this plan done quickly. Although not  _ too  _ quickly, they had to make sure that their plan wasn’t rushed or else they risked failure.

With the note in hand, Penny approached Fenris, smiling triumphantly. 

“He wasn’t suspicious?” Fenris asked curiously as the pair went to track down Owain.

Penny shook her head. 

“Sweeney has an incredibly bad memory, he’s probably forgotten me already.”

Fenris groaned. “That would have saved Anders and I so much time. We should have just asked Senior enchanter Sweeney rather than having to spend hours on end trying to forge a signature.”

Laughing, Penny patted Fenris comfortingly on the back.

The storeroom, like usual, had been completely empty apart from Owain who stood diligently in front of the many boxes of various magical and non-magical items. With no one else looking to obtain anything specific, it meant that Penny could nip in quickly and collect the rod of fire with no questions asked. Owain didn’t even blink when she handed over the note with Sweeney’s message on it. Apparently just a few simple sentences and signature would work, no need for all of that form filling.

However, just as they were on their way back to Fenris’ room in order to hide the rod, the bell for dinner rang.

“Do you think we can make it there and back in time?” Penny asked.

Fenris opened his mouth to answer but a templar spotted them dawdling in the hall.

“Get a move on you two!” The templar ordered.

“I would take that as a no,” said Fenris.

The rod of fire was tucked inside Fenris’ robes and as he walked he could feel it slipping. It was easy enough to keep a piece of paper or two inside of a robe without any problems, but larger and heavier items tended to be harder to keep in place.

To try and prevent the rod slipping further, Fenris began to walk with an odd shuffle. Penny raised an eyebrow but with many templars and mages all walking in the same direction, she couldn’t really stop to ask what was going on. 

By the time they had reached the dining hall the rod of fire had managed to slip out of the protective waxy cloth that it had been wrapped in. Fenris tried to keep a straight face as he felt the rod burning into his side. Shuffling faster, Fenris followed Penny in collecting their meals and going to their seats. 

“Fenris what is going on?” Penny finally asked, placing her bowl of mystery stew on the table.

Trying to not draw any unnecessary attention to himself, Fenris attempted to disguise him rewrapping the rod of fire as him trying to scratch an irritating itch. Although the rod itself wasn’t pressing on his skin anymore, the wound was still incredibly painful.

“Ngh. The rod unwrapped and has burnt me,” He hissed through clenched teeth. 

“Well that’s okay, I can do a little bit of healing!” 

Fenris shook his head.

“Any use of magic on me will make my brands glow,” he explained. 

Slumping her shoulders, Penny turned her attention to her food. 

“Penny.”

The blonde looked up again.

“Do you… Do you think Anders is okay?”

Penny doubted that Anders was having a good time in solitary, but she also knew that he was strong. Perhaps one of the strongest people she had ever met. He was also incredibly resilient. However, truthfully she didn’t know what happened in solitary so she couldn’t speak with any certainty.

“I hope so.”

“Me too.”

\--

Anders laid on his back on the cold hard floor. With his constant doses of magebane, lack of food, and occasional beatings from the templar on duty, Anders had been in and out of consciousness for what felt like an eternity. He wasn’t even sure if a week had passed, it easily could have been much much more.

As he laid, staring blankly at the ceiling, he felt something lumpy and pointy under his back. The floor wasn’t particularly smooth but this was different.

Sitting up, Anders inspected the tile that was jabbing into his spine. A sizeable chunk of the tile was loose, it must have broken when Anders had collapsed last. He gave the tile a shove and a wiggle. The mortar around it began to crumble and break apart, and eventually Anders managed to work it free. 

The piece of rock was triangular and rather sharp. Anders glanced at the stone. Then at the boards covering the windows, then back at the stone, and then back at the boards. With this stone, Anders may be able to loosen the boards enough to get them off. If he was lucky the window behind the boards may be broken and Anders could make a quick escape. If he wasn’t lucky, then he doubted that there was much more trouble that he could get into. 

Shakily, Anders stood and walked over to the boarded window. He placed the sharp side of the stone between the board and the wall and began to try and push the stone in.

As the wooden board began to groan as it was pushed away from the wall, Greagoir’s previous threat of the Rite of Tranquility rang in Anders’ ear and he froze. The stone fell from his hand and hit the floor at such an angle that caused it to shatter into many small pieces.

He couldn’t afford to get into trouble, he realised. Irving could only protect Anders’ for so long and now that Greagoir was insistent on giving Anders’ the rite, he realised that the next punishment would end up with him working in the storeroom for the rest of his life with every ounce of personality that made Anders Anders burned from his being completely.

Defeated, Anders went back to where he had been laying on the floor. At least it was more comfortable without the loose stone poking his back.

-

After dinner Penny and Fenris parted ways. They hadn’t gotten to discuss much more of their plan during their meal for fear of anyone overhearing, but they did managed to briefly talk about their next step. They had to destroy Fenris and Anders’ phylacteries. 

Once back in his room, Fenris put the rod under his thin lumpy mattress and decided that he needed a good night's rest. He really hoped that he would be out of the tower - with Anders - as soon as possible. Penny seemed to know a lot more about the tower and its secrets than the average apprentice so her help would almost ensure their success. 

Whether the actual escape took place the following day or the following week, Fenris had no need to pack any belongings as he didn’t have any. Part of him wished that he did have something he could take with him, as it would be good to have something to sell to get a few coins. The only things that he could think of that may provide enough money to buy some bread or a room for a few days would be the books from the library. However it would almost definitely cause a lot of suspicion if Fenris were to turn up at a bookstall with an armful of books on magic.

He stretched, sighing in relief as his joints popped. As Fenris changed into his sleepwear, he gave a prod at the tender mark on his side that the rod of fire left. A majority of the pain had worn away by now, leaving just a tingling tenderness in its wake. 

Fenris wasn’t even sure how long Anders had been gone for, the days had all began to morph into one another. He still wasn’t used to the talkative blond not being there, even now Fenris caught himself going to say goodnight to him even though he obviously wasn’t there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh I know it's been a while since I updated and I'm sorry that this chapter is pretty uneventful but it needs to be done, I can't just have them leaving immediately because it wouldn't make sense. I haven't written in a while so I hope this chapter is okay omg. Also, I hope you guys don't mind Penny too much. I know some people don't like OCs and although she's Amell (and will therefore go on to be the Warden) she's still kind of an OC. In retrospect I should have put Hawke or something in Amell's place but I'm tempted to do a sequel after this that Hawke may be involved in so it wouldn't make much sense. Also, although I do mess around with the lore a bit in this fic (it is a fic after all) I don't really want to change too much with the character locations and backgrounds and all that.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed and wow I think there will probably only be one more chapter left, two at a stretch. This whole fic has been a real journey for me because I've only ever finished like two other multi-chapter fics before and this one is like 30k words so by finishing this, it's a pretty huge achievement for me. 
> 
> Omg okay I'll stop rambling now, have a great day!!


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah just a heads up I did have to change a few things in the DA world to fit the plot better since it's a fic and that's a thing I can do. Just thought I'd say just so you'd know that any things that seem slightly odd (e.g the abundance of trees/woodland) is intentional

The following day, Fenris brought the rod of fire with him to breakfast. Learning from his mistakes, prior to leaving his room he had wrapped the rod tightly in the wax coated cloth and tied it securely with some twine in order to prevent it coming undone.

Fenris could barely eat any of the stodgy grey porridge as his stomach was rolling with anxiety and excitement. From the other side of the table, Penny could sense what Fenris was feeling and gave him a gentle kick under the table. She nodded discreetly in the direction of the templar nearest them. Perhaps Penny only noticed that Fenris was acting odd since she knew that today was  _ the day _ , but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to say anything. They needed to be as inconspicuous as possible.

Fenris nodded and forced himself to swallow a spoonful. To keep up appearances, they rattled off about random pieces of gossip that they had heard over the past few days. A passing templar rolled their eyes as they overheard the pair discussing in detail how Julianne -one of the newer apprentices- had been practising grease and had managed to flood her room and cover all of her clothing with the slimy substance. It was hard to wash out and as a result she had been slipping around the tower for days.

“Maker’s swollen tits,” Penny swore as the pair exited the dining hall. “I thought that that was going to last a lifetime!”

Fenris let out a snort of laughter, glad that he wasn’t the only one who felt as though breakfast was taking an excruciatingly long time to finish up.

“Where to then?” He asked.

The pair walked quickly away from the crowd of mages and apprentices, they were lucky enough to be one of the first tables to be dismissed which meant that the hallways ahead were completely empty.

“The basement.”

Furrowing his brows, Fenris tried to recall if he had ever heard anything about the tower having a basement before. He had thought that solitary would have been the lowest point to the tower but apparently not. 

“I assume that the basement is not somewhere we are allowed to go,” He replied.

Penny nodded.

“You assume correctly. So the basement is where the phylacteries are and-”

Fenris cut Penny off, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“How is it that you know so much about the workings of this place? Surely with all of the information you know you could have left the tower ages ago?” 

The pair continued down the corridor and made their way down the stairs.

“I read, I listen, and I remember,” Penny explained simply. “It also helps that I have the sort of face that people just seem to tell things to. As for why I’m still here, well, I just don’t want to go. I know to you and Anders escape is everything but I’ve lived in the tower all my life, I have no knowledge of the outside world other than what I’ve read. If I were to leave then I don’t know where I would go or how I would survive. The workings and the rules of the tower are all I know how to live by, I don’t think I would function outside.”

Fenris wasn’t happy with the answer, to him everyone deserved the freedom to live outside and as a completely free being, but he supposed that her answer made sense in a way. Back with Danarius, before he actually had been given the opportunity to escape, the thought of freedom scared him. He was born as a slave, lived as a slave, and until recently he believed he would also die as a slave. Perhaps at the last moment Penny would throw caution to the wind and join them, but he wasn’t going to push it if she wasn’t ready. 

They went down a few more flights of stairs, still ahead of the crowds, and finally reached the basement door. It was large and incredibly daunting. Even more daunting perhaps was the muscular templar that was on guard duty right in front of said door.

Quickly, they stepped out of view of the templar.

“You need to distract her,” Fenris said.

Penny smiled eagerly, she knew exactly what to do.

“Before I go, please be quick. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep the coast clear so you’re going to have to be quick,” Penny said. “Meet me back at my room when you’re done.”

With an encouraging pat on the shoulder, Penny dashed out from their cover and ran up to the templar at the door.

“Ser please you have to help!” She exclaimed, managing to well up a few tears to add to the effect. “I just saw something down the corridor and it was like sentient fire, oh Ser you have to help me! I think it was a rage demon!”

Personally Fenris thought Penny was laying it on a tad thick but it appeared to do the job. With wide eyes and a tight grip on his sword, the templar followed Penny out of the room and away from the door. Fenris just hoped that he would be able to get everything done before they returned.

Not wanting to waste any precious time, Fenris pulled the wrapped rod of fire from his robes and dashed towards the basement door. Summoning all of his strength, he heaved the heavy iron door open just enough for him to slide in.

The basement was dark, incredibly dark. The air was thick with damp and dust and for a moment Fenris struggled to breathe. He coughed a few times before he adjusted to the stale air.

Silently, Fenris thanked the Maker for his elven eyes allowing for better vision in the dark. He was able to quickly locate the door that would allow him entry deeper into the basement. 

The door appeared oddly shimmery, however Fenris didn’t have time to contemplate the shining material that the door was made of. Fenris untied the twine from the rod of fire, discarding it ungracefully on the floor beside him. Using the cloth to protect his hands, Fenris went to use the rod on the door. But it wouldn’t do anything. 

“W-What?”

Fenris tried again, he placed the rod on the door by the lock. Rather than sinking into the door like a knife into soft butter, it clanked as it made contact with the metal. 

“ _ Fasta vass! _ ”

Fenris made another attempt but this time with more force. It was a mistake. The extra pressure caused the rod to slip out of Fenris’ grasp and shoot off down the corridor. Fenris glared angrily at the red glowing rod.

He was cutting it close, he knew it. Penny couldn’t lead the templar on a wild goose chase forever. There was only one thing that he could do and just the thought of it made him queasy.

Fenris placed his hand on the cold stone wall beside the door. Swallowing hard, Fenris began to summon all of the mana he had. He had only tried this once or twice in the past but even then he had never gone as far to attempt what he was about to do. Slowly his hand that was on the wall, began to slip into some kind of incorporeal state. Beads of sweat began to gather at his brow and as the rest of his body turned into a similarly ghostly state, all Fenris could feel was an intense burning sensation. No longer part of the physical realm yet also not quite part of the fade, Fenris phased through the wall into the room behind it. 

He collapsed onto the hard floor, his body back to a solid state. Fenris pushed down the bile that had risen in his throat in reaction to the pain and with weakened arms, got himself up.

Later, he told himself, he could rest later. Once the phylacteries were broken. Once Anders was rescued. Once they were  _ safe.  _

Fenris walked out of the room and down a corridor, soon enough he had broken into a sprint. He passed through corridor after corridor. For a while he was sure that he was going round in circles. Eventually he entered a room unlike one he had ever seen before.

This room wasn’t big, but it was tall. Massive bookcases full of small vials filled with red covered the walls. There was even a few, considerably shorter bookcases in the middle of the room. Fenris concluded that these must be the phylacteries. Never in a million years did he think that there would be that many vials. He had no idea where to start to look for his and Anders’ phylacteries.

Not really having the patience to search the room properly - not that he even had the time to do so - Fenris decided that a more destructive method would be best. In his current state, using magic probably wasn’t the best idea and he could hear both Anders and Penny’s voices in his head telling him to stop but he knew what had to be done.

After Irving’s initial lesson of teaching Fenris how to form a flame, Irving had taught Fenris a few other minor spells as well. One of which included Julienne the apprentice’s apparent favourite, grease.

Taking a deep breath, Fenris close his eyes to focus. Due to his mana already being low, the slow formation of grease on the phylactery storage room floor was fueled almost purely by Fenris’ lyrium markings. Pushing himself through, Fenris bit his lip to try and prevent him screaming out in pain. Once the floor was sufficiently covered, Fenris braced himself for another spell.

Taking an unsteady step back out into the ungreased corridor, Fenris focused hard. He was now drenched in sweat and his white hair clung limply to his forehead. In his hands, he formed a fireball. It wasn’t large or particularly stable, but it would do the job. With a yell that he could no longer contain, Fenris launched the fireball into the room.

Immediately the grease caught fire and the bookcases went up in flames. Fenris waited until he could hear the sound of the glass vials shattering before he began to ran back the way he had come. By this point the adrenaline of what he had done and what he was going to do next had began to sink in and Fenris barely felt anything as he phased through the wall that lead back to the basement door. He knew that when he actually had time to rest he would probably end up collapsing and likely would be unable to move for at least a day, but he couldn’t afford to stop now. The wheels were in motion and there was no way of stopping them, no way of going back or pulling out now.

He ran back through the first corridor, collecting and rewrapping the rod of fire on his way, before pausing in front of the door. There was a chance that Penny had managed to distract the templar for long enough that the coast was clear. However there was just as large a chance that Penny hadn’t been able to do that and there was a templar that would catch him as he came through the door.

Nudging open the door slightly, Fenris peered through. He couldn't see anyone. Fenris held his breath and tried to hear if there were any footsteps, but it was almost impossibly to hear anything over his rapidly beating heart.

Risking everything, Fenris pushed open the door enough to make his way through.

The room was surprisingly empty. Penny was obviously much better at distracting people than Fenris had originally given her credit for. 

Fenris didn’t wait around, he headed directly for Penny’s room. Being incredibly sweaty and likely smelling slightly of smoke, Fenris tried to avoid as many people as possible. The closer he got to Penny’s room, the weaker his entire body began to feel. He barely made it through the doorless door frame before his legs gave out.

And that was exactly how Penny found him later when she returned from leading the templar on a long chase around the tower. He didn’t look comfortable in the slightest, his torso was on her bed but his legs were awkwardly sprawled out on the floor beneath him.

“Fenris?!” She gasped, rushing over to help him fully onto the bed. “Maker’s breath, what happened?”

Only just conscious, Fenris mumbled a reply under his breath that Penny couldn’t make out. Despite knowing that she probably shouldn’t, Penny summoned a simple healing spell. It wouldn’t heal him completely but hopefully it should help at least a little bit. As Penny funneled the healing magic into Fenris, his brands began to shine a bright white-blue; it was hard to look at. 

“Thank you,” Fenris said. 

He didn’t feel perfect but at least he didn’t feel as though he was going to slip into a coma at any moment.

Penny looked at him with a look that Fenris imagined would be similar to that of a concerned parent.

“Fenris I know Anders is important to you, he’s important to me too, but if you’re not well enough-”

“No,” Fenris snapped, instantly regretting his tone. “I-I am fine. Let’s do this.”

Penny wasn’t convinced but there was no point in stopping him. After Penny helped Fenris up, the pair left Penny’s room for what Fenris’ hoped would be the last time.

“You did destroy them didn’t you?” Penny whispered to him as they walked.

Fenris nodded with a proud smirk.

“Good, now we just need to figure out how to get Anders out of solitary unnoticed…”

Fenris thought back to when he had been taken to the circle and he had been in solitary. The layout of the room was relatively simple, just a small square cell with a window. From his brief glance out of the window from solitary, Fenris was able to tell that solitary was in fact quite close to the ground. So long as they could get the window open they would quite easily be able to make it outside, they wouldn’t even need a makeshift rope like last time. Fenris ignored the small nagging voice at the back of his head that told him that Anders’ cell may not have a window and that this whole attempt would be futile.

“I have a plan,” said Fenris, a grin forming on his face. “But I am going to require your distracting abilities again in order for me to sneak in undetected.”

“I can do that! Although, I don’t think I’ll be able to pull as big of a stunt as ‘there’s a demon’. Though perhaps I can use my wiley womanly ways.” She gave Fenris a wink at the end.

He narrowed his eyes.

“Penny, I do not want you doing anything that would put you in considerably risky situation for me.”

Fenris had heard many stories about young apprentices being taken advantage of by templars and he did not want Penny to be put in a situation like that. She didn’t deserve that. Nobody deserved that.

“Fen,” She said seriously. “I won’t let them lay a single finger on me, don’t worry.”

They approached the door that lead towards the area of the tower that was classed as solitary confinement. As they waited on the opposite side of the room for a few dawdling mages and a templar doing the rounds to move into the next room, Fenris cleared his throat. Penny looked over at him.

“I just thought that now would be a good time to thank you,” he said. “If all goes to plan I doubt I will see you again and it really should be said that I appreciate all of your help greatly.”

Penny bit her lip to stop a smile from taking over her face.

“Fenris, you and Anders are like family to me. I would lay my life on the line to help you guys. No one can predict what happens in life so who knows, perhaps we will all meet again.”

As the clanking noises of templar armor moved into the distance, Penny gave one last glance around and told Fenris to loiter by the door. 

“I’ll giggle rather loudly when the coast is clear,” she explained before vanishing behind the wooden door.

Trying to not look as awkward as he felt, Fenris leant with his back on the wall and crossed his arms. A particularly young apprentice saw Fenris’s stance, squeaked in fear, and ran off down the corridor for fear that the angry looking elf would do something to him. Fenris watched the boy run, unaware of the fact he was frowning rather intensely out of worry and the still niggling pain of his earlier magic use.

As Fenris waited in the hall, he listened to everything going on behind the door next to him. He couldn’t make out exactly what was being said but he gathered that Penny was successfully charming the templar or perhaps  _ templars  _ in the room as no one had raised their voice yet. Fenris could only hear the odd mumble and then he heard the signal, Penny’s high pitched over-the-top giggling.

Gently, Fenris pushed open the door and tiptoed in. There was only one templar on duty which Fenris supposed actually made sense since as far as Fenris knew, Anders was the only person in solitary so he doubted that there would be much need for a lot of guards. Said templar had his back to the door and as a result, had his back to Fenris. The templar seemed to be completely in awe of Penny, who appeared to be fluttering her eyelashes a lot and also pushing her chest out a tad.

“So what’s it like being a big, strong, handsome templar then?” She said in such a way that even Fenris was left with his ears tinged pink.

“W-Well…” The templar began but Fenris stopped listening in order to get back at the task at hand.

On the other side of the room to Fenris, was a hallway with many doors. Silently, Fenris went to move towards the hall but a small table and chair caught his attention. The table was covered in items; half bowls of slop, an array of books, some pieces of vellum, and something that Fenris recognised immediately. A small embroidered cushion that was poking out of a satchel. 

After sparing a glance at Penny and the templar to assure himself that he wouldn’t be seen and that the templar wasn’t losing interest in Penny’s distraction, Fenris snatched up the satchel and padded off silently down the hallway.

Each door had a rather large lock and a small sliding window. Fenris tried to be as quiet as he could as he opened each sliding window to check every cell but apparently he wasn’t doing a great job at being discreet as he noticed that Penny’s giggling and flirting had gotten louder to cover the noise he was making.

After about four unsuccessful cell checks, Fenris came across a door where the sliding window was already partially opened.

“Anders?” Fenris whispered as quietly as he could.

“Oh yay, it’s magebane time all ready,” came a weary reply.

That was definitely Anders, despite the lack of energy in the words it was definitely him. 

“Anders it’s me, Fenris.” 

Fenris pushed opened the sliding window fully and his chest hurt at the sight he saw. The voice was definitely Anders but the human in the cell looked barely like him.

Anders’ blond hair was greasy, unwashed, and in some areas was matted with blood. His eyes and cheeks were hollowed and the circles under his eyes were dark from lack of sleep. The freckles that had previously scattered a majority of his skin were barely visible from lack of sunlight. He had been thin before but now he looked a few weeks away from skeletal.

Fenris wished he had come so much earlier.

“F-Fenris?” Anders voice was almost inaudible, he looked at Fenris through the window and was on the brink of tears. “No this is another dream, you’re not here!”

Fenris’ eyes widened as Anders voice began to rise and he automatically hushed the blond.

“Please, we cannot get caught,” Fenris begged quietly. “We are so close Anders.”

Fenris couldn’t tell whether Anders actually believed it was him or not but regardless, he stayed quiet. Perhaps more out of fear of the templars coming to investigate any noise than anything else.

Reaching into his robes, Fenris once again pulled out the rod of fire. As he unwrapped it, ready to use on the lock he hoped that he wouldn’t have a repeat of the door in the basement.

Fortunately luck seemed to be in his favour as the rod sunk into the metal lock with a soft hiss and melted away the lock and the components keeping the door shut. Unable to wait any longer, Fenris pulled open the door. He left the rod of fire on the floor and rushed over and embraced Anders in a tight hug. 

Anders stiffened for a moment but then came to the realisation that this time he wasn’t hallucinating, tears formed in his eyes. Fenris came for him. He relaxed into the hug and breathed in Fenris’ familiar scent.

Fenris wanted nothing more to stay in the embrace for eternity. Despite Anders’ unwashed stench and the burning feeling that the contact gave Fenris’ overworked markings, Fenris just wanted Anders in his arms.

“Look miss this is nice an’ all but I really should be gettin’ back to duty-” Back in the other room, the templar was beginning to resist Penny’s distraction.

“Are you sure that’s what you want? What about little ol’ me? You can’t just leave me all on my lonesome...”

Putting Anders at arms length, Fenris looked the taller human in the eyes. 

“Penny is distracting the templar,” he explained. “We have not got much time left we have to go.”

“ _ How _ ?!” 

Fenris spots the wooden boards covering the wall. Surely the window should be there, he thought. 

“Hold this,” Fenris said to Anders as he handed him the satchel with his cushion in.

“Where on Thedas did you find this…” 

Anders trailed off when he saw Fenris put a finger to his lips, the universal gesture for silence.

Once again collecting the rod of fire, Fenris walked over to the boarded window and began to burn a sizeable hole in the wood. The room began to fill with smoke and the smell of burning wood. Once the burning smell reached the templar then there would be little that Penny could do to stop him investigating. Fires outranked pretty girls in importance a majority of the time.

The wooden boards burned away to reveal rather than a window, a large gaping hole. The window must have been damaged at some point and rather than repair it, someone had just boarded it up. Over time the window spot had eroded away to leave a hole that a human could easily crawl through.

Fenris couldn’t help but smile, if he didn’t believe in the Maker before, he certainly did now.

Just as he had remembered, they were not far off of the ground. They would have to jump and hope they landed well enough to not twist their ankle or something, but it wasn’t impossible to get down from.

“Are you ready?” Fenris asked, holding out a hand to Anders.

Nodding, Anders took Fenris’ hand. Fenris helped to lower Anders to the ground beneath the hole and once he was firmly on the soil, Fenris jumped down too.

Excitement began to bubble up and Fenris had to try his best to push it back down. Yes they were on the ground and technically outside of the tower’s walls, but they had to cross the river first.

Anders looked out over the lake, squinting at the sudden light. 

“Fen, can you swim?” Anders asked softly, realising that the question had never been asked before.

Admittedly it had been a while, but yes Fenris could swim. He gave Anders a nod and the two began to submerge themselves in the cool waters of lake Calenhad.

Fenris chose not to mention that Anders had began to tear up considerably at the feeling of relatively clean water. Instead, Fenris motioned that they move round and away from the direct line of view from the hole in the wall that they had just come from. That way if a templar were to look out they wouldn’t immediately be spotted.

Taking one last look at the stone tower and silently thanking Penny once again, Fenris swam as fast as he could. His whole body hurt and craved rest but he couldn’t afford to stop. He probably wouldn’t be able to stop and rest for at least another day or so.

Occasionally, Fenris would check on Anders to make sure he was keeping up. Although he had been in a terrible state when Fenris found him, apparently the adrenaline and weight of the situation had kicked in as Anders was swimming forwards at a substantial speed.

It didn’t take them long before they had emerged on the bank at the edge of the lake completely drenched and cold. Anders paused for a moment to ring out his satchel and cushion before darting off into the dense woodland that surrounded lake Calenhad. Following closely behind Anders, Fenris began to wish he had long legs too.

“How- How are you holding up?” Anders called out to Fenris as they ran.

“I should- should be asking you that!” Fenris shouted back between breaths.

Anders yelled to Fenris that they would have to keep running for a while, and they would probably have to change direction a lot in order to keep the templars off of the trail. 

“We can’t stop either,” Anders continued. “No matter how much you want to we can’t. If we stop, the templars will catch up with us.”

Fenris was tempted to mention the phylacteries but considering that Anders was rather ahead of him and Fenris needed to catch up with him, he decided to stay quiet for the moment in order to save him breath.

They ran for what seemed like hours. Many times had they switched directions in order to try and disguise their trail. Any times the felt that they were too close to the edge of the woodland and too close to a town or village, they retreated back into the trees. It was far too soon to go into civilisation as it wouldn’t be long before the templars in every local settlement were told descriptions of the pair.

The woodland felt endless. The forest was just as thick as when they had started running which Fenris thought might mean they were still near the lake but he trusted Anders navigational skills since the blond had most likely been through these woods before.

At sunset, Fenris called out to Anders to stop. Fenris’ legs were numb and his bare feet stung with cuts from twigs and bramble, and he assumed that Anders was in a similar state.

“B-But we- we can’t stop!” Anders panted.

Fenris felt as though he legs would give in any moment, if they wanted to continue running they would have to take a break.

“Just for a- for a while, Anders we need a break,” Fenris was struggling to speak he was so out of breath.

Nervously looking around, Anders checked for any sign of templar activity nearby. Instead of the sound of ominous clanking metal and yelling, he was met with soft breezes and the calming noises of woodland creatures.

“Per- Perhaps we should…”

After letting themselves catch their breath again the two gathered up some twigs and branches and constructed a small shelter next to a large shrub that blended in perfectly. As they gathered, Anders filled the pockets in his dirty tattered robe with various berries that he had deemed safe enough. They wouldn’t be able to have a fire as it would basically be a templar beacon, but at least they would be able to have some food.

It was very snug in the shelter, the two basically had to cuddle in order to fit in. Although without a fire to keep them warm as the night drew cold, body heat was very much welcome.

Anders’ pulled his knees up to his chin and rested his head on Fenris’ shoulder.

“I can’t believe you came to get me…” He said softly, almost in awe.

Fenris felt the tips of his ears heat up and he was thankful that Anders couldn’t see him blush in the darkness. He placed his head gently atop of Anders’.

“I could not leave you there,” Fenris said. “Anders, do you know how long you were gone for?”

Anders shook his head. With all of the magebane, lack of sun, and severe punishments from templars he had basically lost all sense of time.

“Two months and three days. No one would tell me where you were. It wasn’t until Penny overheard people talking about you that we found out where you were.”

Anders winced. He had gone through something similar when they had transferred Karl, for ages no one had told him where Karl had gone. It was painful. 

“Anders I’m so incredibly sorry.”

At that Anders head shot up, nearly bashing into Fenris’.

“Why are you apologising?” Anders couldn’t fathom why Fenris would say sorry, he hadn’t done anything worth apologising for.

Fenris’ shoulders dipped in shame.

“If I hadn’t mentioned anything about escaping in the first place then you would not have had to endure what you have and I’m so sorry.”

Anders didn’t mean to laugh, he really didn’t. But Fenris apologising although incredibly sweet, was unnecessary.

“Fen,” Anders started, cupping Fenris’ cheek with a frail hand and stroking his cheek with his thumb. “If it wasn’t for you I also wouldn’t be outside of the tower walls right now. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have my mother’s cushion back. If it wasn’t for you I would most likely be in solitary still because honestly I do have a thing for escaping and getting caught. Let’s just hope I can get in a few more months outside than my last attempt before the templars catch up to me.”

“They can’t.”

Anders raised an eyebrow, his hand slipping from Fenris’ face.

“What do you mean? Fen, I’m all up for optimism but unless you are extremely lucky the templars always catch up with you. Escaping just gives us a few months of freedom before they put us back in the tower.” He said.

“Penny helped me locate and destroy our phylacteries,” Fenris explained with a small smile. “The templars do not have our blood Anders, they can’t track us like they did with your previous escapes.”

For a minute Anders was silent, taking in the new information. He had assumed that the templars had some way of tracking him because honestly he had almost always covered his tracks very well yet they had always caught up with him in the end. But if what Fenris said was true then he really was free. They both were. Anders truly hoped that Fenris wasn’t lying but it sounded too good to be true.

“Fenris please don’t joke like this.”

“I never would, you know that.”

Anders looked at Fenris, his expression unreadable.

“Fenris,” he said quietly. “Can I kiss you?”

Fenris closed the gap between them and Anders immediately began to push back. Anders’ slender arms found their way around Fenris’ neck, pulling the elf closer. With one hand on Anders’ waist, Fenris used his other to free the top part of Anders’ still damp hair from his leather band.

Anders broke the kiss and moved one hand to the ties keeping Fenris’ robe closed, he paused and looked to Fenris for permission to continue. The elf gave a nod and watched as Anders began to open the robe, exposing Fenris’ branded and scarred body. Fenris tried not to curl in on himself at the sight.

Sensing Fenris’ uncomfort, Anders undid his own robe to show his own array of scars inflicted by both his father in early childhood and the templars. A sad smile appeared on Fenris’ face but it quickly vanished as Fenris pulled the human in for another deep kiss which Anders happily returned.

Fenris’ hand gently caressed Anders’ chest, careful of the wounds which were obviously still healing. Suppressing a moan, Anders tried to pull Fenris closer. Anders was about to venture further south when a large crack of a twig caused the pair to freeze, their hearts pounding and their breathing heavy.

Slowly, Anders turned his gaze from a now terrified looking Fenris into the dark woodland. Standing in front of their shelter was an equally scared young halla. After realising that it had been noticed, the halla raced off into the dense foliage.

Relieved, Anders rested his forehead on Fenris’ chest and began to laugh. This caused Fenris to let out a chuckle.

“Perhaps this isn’t the best time or place?” Fenris suggested, trying to stop himself laughing.

“Unfortunately you may be right.” Anders said as he began to retie Fenris’ robes before redressing himself. As much as Anders - and his body apparently - wanted to continue he really didn’t need the templars catching him with his pants down again.

The pair laid down as comfortably as they could with the limited space. They lay in silence, in each others embrace.

After a while, Anders can’t help but ask.

“Now you’re free, completely free, where are you going to go?” 

“I’m going to go anywhere. Anywhere and everywhere.”

Anders stared up at the smattering of stars that were poking through the gaps in the tree tops. He wanted to ask if he and Fenris would be staying together but fear of the answer being no kept him quiet.

“Anders?” 

“Yes?”

Fenris turned to look at him.

“Come with me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh God, I've actually finished it. To be totally honest there was a time where I didn't think I would ever finish this fic but omfg I actually did it (seriously I rarely finish things that I start so this is a pretty big deal). I'm probably going to go back over the entire thing in a few weeks or when I'm free next so that I can just edit it all as a whole and hopefully sort out any plot holes and things since it's pretty hard to do that as you're going along unless you're like a super intensive planner which i'm not. aaaaanyway I hope you guys liked this and omfg there are some of you that have basically been reading this since the start so thank you guys for sticking around this long. Just thank you all for reading this fic that started as a late night random thought wow.  
> I want to stick maybe an epilogue or maybe even a sequel to this but honestly I'm stumped for ideas at the moment so I may just leave it as it. Thank you guys again <3
> 
> P.S writing makeout/kissing scenes really isn't my forte so lmao please take it all with a pinch of salt

**Author's Note:**

> This work is unbeta'd so if you spot any mistakes please tell me because it's most likely that I was writing at 2am and therefore some mistakes slipped under the radar.  
> Also, this is my first time writing a relatively long fic about Fenris and Anders and I'm trying my best to make sure that everyone stays in character but I'm still learning so please excuse any mistakes :)
> 
> Have a nice day!


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